The Charmed Seven Past AU Ghosts of the Past
by Lu-Larabee-Standish
Summary: Will the Potters and their adopted sons have a happy Halloween? Maybe, maybe not.
1. Story Info and Teaser

**Ghosts of the Past by Lu - Story Info. and Teaser**

A Halloween Charmed Seven Past story.

Disclaimer: Charmed and The Magnificent Seven weren't created by and aren't owned by me, and I only use them in fanfiction for fun without any money-making involved.

Warnings: Some deaths of members of the seven, but everyone (who is normally alive in the AU) will be living again by the end of the story. Some minor swearwords (and a few major ones) are used. Mention of blood in a few places. Warnings are given at the top of any relevant chapters.

Main characters: Chris, Ezra, Nathan, but the other guys are quite active in the fic as well.

AU Type: The Charmed Seven Past - spin-off from The Charmed Seven (AU also created by me). The Charmed Seven is about the Magnificent Seven in a universe similar to the Charmed TV show. Stories in this spin-off AU are about the guys of The Charmed Seven when at least one of them was still below 18.

Open AU to all, but please let me know by email if you are planning to write in the AU.

Story Note: Takes place a while after The Fifth and Sixth Sons, and only Vin, JD and Ezra are still younger than 18.

Author's Note: All OMCs and OFCs in this story were created by me, but they aren't legal property and other people may borrow them for this AU if they credit me as the creator.

Acknowledgments: Thanks to Jessie Jane for helping me make this story make more sense than it did to start with, and finding any errors I missed.

Spoilers: For "The Seventh Brother" (as most of the Past ones contain.)

Feedback: Yes, please. No flames please.

**Teaser**

In the midst of the Underworld in a small gray rock cave, two eighteen-year-old warlocks were having a meeting. The slightly taller warlock was called Ivan and the other was Ivor. They were twins who had been good witches two years ago until an older man had begun to transform them into warlocks after catching and imprisoning them both.

They had recently found out about the prophecy of "The Charmed Seven" and wanted to stop it from being fulfilled so that they could be promoted to a far higher rank in the Underworld. Then they would kill the Source when they were high enough to be next in line to the throne, and rule the Underworld together.

Ivan, the twin with gray-blue eyes, began their meeting, having already thought up a possible plan to ruin the prophecy. "Brother, I have already had a brilliant idea: if we stop the seven from ever being born, we won't have to kill them to stop the prophecy coming true. The six together are very powerful already and seem to be impossible to defeat."

Ivor, the dark-green eyed twin, grinned, his brilliant white teeth gleaming. "That is a fine plan, Ivan. We would need to travel back through time to carry it out though. Unfortunately, our Shimmering won't allow us to time-travel." He felt sorry for his brother having such a remarkable idea but then having the major flaw in it pointed out.

A loud evil laugh escaped Ivan's lips. "Do you think I hadn't thought my plan through thoroughly? I have already recruited a lower level demon that can time-travel. We will give him instructions and then he will travel back and carry them out to the letter."

Ivor wrapped his arms around Ivan and hugged him. "I am so proud of you, brother - that is an incredible plan that won't fail. The witches won't find out our plan until it is too late and then they'll all be erased from existence."

"Actually there is another part of my plan I haven't revealed yet. I want the fools to try and save their futures - their attempts to fix history will change it even further and have catastrophic repercussions." Ivan began to laugh - a chilling laugh that would even scare a brave demon. Ivor joined him, laughing just as heartily.

**To be continued...**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

It was the Monday before Halloween - the favorite time of year for evil, as they could be seen in public, pretending to be in costumes so no-one would be shocked by their unearthly appearances. It wasn't a good time for the forces of good, as evil could be right under their noses without them knowing, pretending to just be adult trick-or-treaters.

It also seemed like evil went on a killing spree each year on Halloween, attempting to murder as many innocents as they could before the good witches showed up to stop them. As the number of good witches was growing with the population, there was an increasing number of good witches to stop evil succeeding in their plans. Fewer innocents, be they magical or non-magical, were being killed each year because of the increasing witch population. The evil population wasn't increasing as rapidly.

Some good witches were happy for their children to dress up for Halloween - evil beings were only in adult form so it was fairly easy to tell which unearthly looking creatures were really costumed children. The Potters, being witches and having to constantly fight real evil, didn't like their adopted sons dressing up for Halloween.

Both Chris and Ezra were rescued from demonic attacks before coming to live with the Potters. Vin and JD just missed being attacked by the warlocks who killed their mother and the other witches fighting against them. Had it not been for Ezra and Nathan orbing in to rescue the two children first, the warlocks would have surely killed them as well. All the boys, except for Chris, wanted to join the Halloween festivities, not caring that most of the costumes looked vaguely like some of the real evil beings that their adoptive parents regularly fought. The boys just wanted to join in the festivities just like their non-magical friends.

For the youngest son, JD, it was the hardest - he'd never been trick or treating, but his real mother, Michelle Dunne, had helped him dress for a children's Halloween party the previous year. Then she'd said he could do it again the next year - except she'd died before the next Halloween could come. It was hard for him to understand why he couldn't celebrate Halloween like his new non-magical friends did - and like he'd done the previous year.

As the Potter family all sat at the breakfast table that morning, JD picked at his breakfast with his spoon, sulking because he'd been told he couldn't go to the Friday night Halloween party with all of his new friends.

"JD, You still sulkin' 'bout the party?" asked Vin, from beside his biological half-brother.

"It ain't fair - everyone else is going."

"There is no such word as 'ain't'," said Ezra, annoyed that the child wasn't speaking proper English like he should. "Besides, 'everyone else' isn't going. The rest of this family isn't going to be in attendance."

Terrence Potter threw Ezra a glare. "He meant that all of his similar aged friends are going."

"I could go as a cowboy - I don't wanna be a demon anyway," offered JD, as he continued to move his Cheerios around the cereal bowl. Perhaps they'd let him go if he went as something non-evil.

"There could be real evil at that party, Dear," explained Gloria. "It's the time of year when evil can freely mix with innocents without being noticed. You could be in danger if you go there without anyone to protect you."

"I can look after myself," argued JD angrily, not really understanding why all his friends could go but he couldn't.

"If you looked after yourself, you would reveal that you're a witch to everyone non-magical there."

"Why don't we have our own Halloween party here - just fer us?" suggested Vin. Besides, Vin wanting his younger brother to be happy, he wanted to dress up and have a party too - he hadn't been invited to any parties.

The boys' adopted father Terrence looked questioningly at Gloria, seeking her approval to hold their own party. "It sounds like a good idea to me," he said, attempting to persuade Gloria. "Anything to make JD happy again."

Gloria smiled then looked at JD. "Okay, we'll do it - but only if you all dress as non-evil characters."

"All?" asked Chris, not wanting to dress up at all.

"You can invite Sarah - then you can both dress up for it," answered Terrence, quickly rectifying the situation.

"Okay." If that was what it took to avoid JD sulking all week, then Chris would do it - even though it did mean dressing up like a kid. At eighteen years old, Chris was close to being an adult and wanted to keep his distance from doing anything that he considered too childish for him. Of course, that didn't include sneaking cookies from the kitchen's cookie jar - they were always ones his mother had baked and they were the best cookies Chris had ever tasted.

"You were excluding adults from your 'all' weren't you, Mother?" asked Josiah, pretty certain that Gloria only meant for the under twenties to dress up for their Halloween party. Now twenty-eight, Josiah already had his own apartment on the other side of town, and was working for the local police department after graduating police academy three years ago. He often joined the family for breakfast, ready to fight against any unwanted evil intruders. Since his sixteenth birthday, he'd been helping his father fight evil and protect innocents whenever he could.

"No, I wasn't excluding adults - I think it would be good for us to all to get into the swing of Halloween for a change." Gloria already had some ideas for her costume - a female figure from history would be just perfect.

"Is Mr. Jackson going to participate as well?" asked Ezra with a smile - it would be amusing to see their Whitelighter in costume for the party.

"We don't have time to ask him right now - it's almost time for school, so you boys had best get a move on."

'Of course, we wouldn't want to tarnish our unscathed records for punctuality, would we?' thought Ezra sarcastically, thinking about how many times the boys had been late for school because of early morning attacks from evil.

A stern look from his adoptive mother told Ezra that Gloria knew exactly what he was thinking - even though she wasn't telepathic like him or Terrence. "Answering back in your head is just as bad as answering back out loud, Ezra P. Standish. If you want to go to our Halloween party you'll be on your best behavior for all of this week, understand?"

"Sorry, Gloria." Ezra knew he had better start behaving himself, including calling his adoptive mother by her first name rather than "Mrs. Potter", which she hated, but Ezra used because of his being raised to address adults formally. Ezra refused to ever address her in such a way that indicated she was his mother - he still held onto the belief that his real mother would return for him one day, so thought it would be disrespectful to Maude to accept anyone else in her place. "I promise I'll behave like a gentleman all week." The thought of not being allowed to attend the party was awful. Even if it was only a family party, Ezra still wanted to go - especially as it involved dressing up. The boy had always loved dressing up and pretending, although most of it had been when he was trying to find out information from demons or warlocks without them being able to recognize him as a good witch.

"And another thing before you leave the table, Ezra. No dressing up with your glamour power - you can either ask me to make you a costume, or hire you one."

Grumbling was heard coming from the boy as Ezra stood up and walked out of the room. His costume wouldn't be as good - he'd been thinking of using his glamour power to turn himself into a character out of one of his comics. If he used his magic to copy a super-hero, he should look exactly the same as them as well as possess their powers. A hand-made costume wouldn't look authentic or give him a hero's powers. Despite having his own powers, Ezra would love to have different ones sometimes.

"Son," called Terrence after the retreating boy. When Ezra turned back, Terrence explained to him the real reason why he shouldn't use his glamour power. "You know that it brings out your half-demon side when you use any of your demonic powers - such as glamour. Nathan can only heal you if your demon half is suppressed inside; so if you were attacked while using your glamour unnecessarily, then Nathan wouldn't be able to completely heal you."

Mr. Potter was right as usual, Ezra realized. He had a lot of respect for the wise half-Whitelighter witch that was his adoptive father. Terrence had a lot of knowledge of all things magical as well as having a big heart - Ezra idolized the man as a result and hoped he could grow up to be just like him. As Ezra hadn't had a real father since he was very young, he had been delighted when Mr. Potter became his father, and as a result, always called him "Father" when addressing him. "Father, it would make my costume far more authentic if I created it that way - what are the chances of someone evil attacking me at the party?"

"Never ask that question, Son," was the only thing Terrence said in reply.

Standish grumbled some more as he started walking upstairs to get ready for school. He WOULD use his glamour for the party - he could protect himself against anyone who attacked.

"Sir, me and JD want to dress as cowboys," informed Vin. "Maybe Chris could be an Indian."

Chris failed to suppress his grin. They wanted him as an Indian so they could overpower and tie him up, of that he was sure. "How about I be a cowboy too and Josiah can be the Indian?"

"Yeah!" agreed both younger boys, liking Chris's idea even better than their own.

"I don't mind," said Josiah, who was happy to help entertain the two youngest brothers in any way he could. "I'll enjoy making my own costume at my place after work." Josiah had started learning to sew when he'd been at the strict boarding school, but hadn't gotten very far before he'd been rescued by Terrence. As he enjoyed making things himself, he'd then asked his new mother to further his education in that aspect and she'd happily agreed.

"I'll get some material and start making your cowboy costumes tonight," declared Gloria. "I'll need you all available in the evenings so I can get them finished by Friday." She then decided to rent costumes for herself and Terrence as there wouldn't be enough time to make those as well.

"What about Ezra?" asked JD, worried that Ezra wasn't going to join in. Ezra hadn't said what he wanted to be so 'cowboy costumes' didn't apply to him.

"I already have enough to do - we'll have to hire him an outfit."

Ezra was sitting on the stairs in the hallway when he heard Gloria's words - he was the middle child, so it wasn't surprising that he wouldn't get the same treatment as the others. Maybe he should find a family without so many other children - then he'd be treated far better.

"Son," addressed Terrence, as he walked into the hallway and saw the sad-looking boy sitting on the stairs. "We do love you; it's just that Gloria doesn't have time to make costumes for everyone in addition to saving innocents. You know that evil gets very active this time of year."

"It's predictable how it's always me who suffers - I AM the middle child after all."

"We try hard to provide for you all, but sometimes it's difficult. Maybe we could make an allowance for you and use a spell to make you a costume."

"Really?" Ezra perked up at the idea of being changed into a character by good magic. Then he could have real hero's powers.

"We'll discuss it tonight, you have to get ready for school now," said Terrence, as the clock on the wall chimed eight.

"Thank you, Father." The boy hurried upstairs to finish getting ready for school.

Terrence sighed - if they weren't fair to all their sons there could be serious consequences. Walking into the kitchen, Terrence approached Gloria. "We need a private talk, Gloria."

"Can't it wait?" asked the woman. "I need to make the boys' lunches."

"No, it's very important. I'll make it quick - it's about our middle son."

**To be continued...**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Keep still JD, or the pins will stick in you," warned Gloria, as the little boy squirmed again. It was after school on Monday, and Gloria was working on the boys' costumes for Friday's family Halloween party.

"I's can't keep still - this is boring," explained the boy.

"Do you want to be a cowboy or not?"

"O-kay."

This time, the little boy remained still - or close to it, while Gloria finished looking over the pinned-together cowboy vest. "All done, now hold still while I take this off."

The boy obeyed as Gloria carefully slipped the material over his head.

"Now, go and fetch Vin for me, please."

JD ran out of the room to find Vin.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Meanwhile, Terrence and Ezra were in the Magic Room, working on a spell to change the boy into his chosen character. They had to word it carefully, or they'd end up with more than they bargained.

"What would you like to be, Son?" asked Terrence, after having been unable to work out from Ezra's long-worded description what he wanted to be for Halloween.

"I desire to be a comic-book super-hero, Father," answered Ezra, standing tall and straight as though demonstrating how good he would look in a hero's outfit.

"Batman? Superman?" A disgusted look from Ezra told Terrence that he'd guessed wrong.

"Father, do I possess the appearance of an adolescent who would desire to be appareled in either of such ridiculous costumes?"

"I didn't think there were many stylish super-heroes, Son."

"When was the last time you perused literature or watched television pertaining to today's fictional saviors?"

After rolling his eyes at his son for using such long words, Terrence spoke. "Which hero do you want to be?"

"A lesser known one, Father...," started Ezra as he started telling Terrence all about his favorite comic-book hero. His favorite super-hero was far more agile than the two his father had guessed, despite the costume really not looking much better than the other two heroes'.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Elsewhere in the Potter household, Chris sat on the bed in his room, looking through a library book that contained information and pictures about the real Old West. As he was older than the other two sons who wanted cowboy costumes, Chris wanted to choose his own outfit. So Gloria had gone to the library that morning and borrowed a history book with cowboy pictures to give Chris some ideas for his costume. He'd only started reading since he'd arrived home from school about half an hour ago, but as he was a fast reader, he'd read quite a lot already.

The book contained a lot of interesting details and pictures of the Old West, and the teenager was fascinated by it all. He reached the section about the Old West after the Civil War had ended and turned the page. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw the man smiling up at him from the right-hand page of the book. "OH MY GOD!" Chris couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Blue and white orbs arrived in the room, bringing the Potters' Whitelighter to Chris. Nathan had sensed Chris's immense surprise at something and was concerned about the young man.

Sensing someone else magical in his room, Chris quickly turned, ready to defend himself if needed. He sighed with relief when he saw who it was. "Nathan? What are you doing here?"

"I felt your shock, Chris, and was worried somethin' might be wrong," answered the Whitelighter, looking Chris up and down to check he wasn't hurt in some way.

"I'm fine, Nate. Look what I found in this book." Chris handed the book to Nathan, pointing to the startling photograph there.

The Whitelighter studied the photo, and then became worried that the younger man could learn the startling truth from the image. It could reveal Chris's destiny to become one of the six most powerful witches in the world. The prophecy was to remain secret until the Elders gave the okay to reveal it. The time for it to be revealed to the witches would probably be when they were all grown up AND when their group was complete.

There was still one male witch needed to complete their group - but only the Elders and a few privileged Whitelighters knew his location. Not even Nathan was allowed to know the sixth witch's location, although he knew his name because it was the only one of the Old West seven's namesakes not in the Potter household.

"Nate, tell me that cowboy looks nothing like me!" Astonishment was very evident in the blond witch's voice, as he stared at the black and white picture on the page.

"Well, for one thing, he's smokin' - you don't smoke." Any differences between Chris and the cowboy had to be pointed out so Chris wouldn't be able to see many similarities between him and the blond gunslinger. If the young man found out he was related to the gunslinger in the picture and then discovered the names of the gunslinger's friends, he'd soon start to wonder if it was more than just coincidence that the Old West group and Potter witches shared the same names. "You know smoking's bad for you, Chris."

"Doesn't make him look any less like me though, does it?" As he spoke, Chris was stroking the photograph with his finger - that guy could be an ancestor of his for all he knew. That was when he closed his eyes as he felt a premonition coming on. Chris's first thought was that it would be a premonition relating to the man in the Old West, as the object he touched would only bring on a premonition that somehow related to it. Then Chris realized that the photo was a copy of the original, so couldn't possibly give him a premonition of the man pictured. It was more likely that he'd get a premonition of anyone in the present day that'd touched it - perhaps the last person who'd borrowed the book from the library.

Chris hadn't had any premonitions since Saturday, when he'd gotten one from a car and saved an innocent from being knocked down by that vehicle soon after. His premonitions were usually of things that had recently happened or things due to happen very soon - possibly the day he got them.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

"Sure is one handsome baby," said the blue-eyed man with shoulder length, medium-brown hair.

"Of course he's handsome, Vin - he takes after his Pa," answered the blonde woman weakly, while lying propped up in bed.

"Two months early and he's healthy as anythin'," exclaimed the dark skinned man, as he finished checking the baby. "Y'all should rest, Mary. I'll take care of Christopher 'til his Pa gets back."

"Thank you, Nathan. It's a good thing Billy's staying with his Grandpa at the moment."

"This sure ain't no place for a boy right now," agreed Vin. "Chris is gonna be so surprised when he finds out he's got a son - and two months early. He thought fer sure it was gonna be a girl."

"So did I, Vin," answered the woman, as Nathan handed her the baby to hold briefly before she rested. "I'm sure he never expected to get a family again when he first came to this town."

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

"Wow!" exclaimed Chris, as he re-opened his eyes. He didn't often have such pleasant premonitions - certainly not ones of events that had happened so long ago.

"What did you see, Chris?" asked Nathan, knowing that it was the photograph that had given Chris the premonition.

"It was in the Old West: a blonde woman had just had a baby boy and called him "Chris" after his father, who was out of town. The child was born two months early, but was perfectly healthy. There was something strange the woman said at the end though: 'I'm sure he never expected to get a family again when he first came to this town,' like the father had once had a family but lost them. Except for that, it was a joyful vision."

"Was there anyone else there 'sides the woman and baby?" questioned Nathan, eager to know if Chris had seen anyone familiar in the vision. If Chris hadn't seen anyone who looked like his brothers, then he wouldn't risk finding out about the prophecy.

"Someone just like you also called 'Nathan', but with a stronger accent, was there checking the baby, and there was a Texan guy coincidentally called 'Vin' as well," revealed Larabee.

"Just coincidence about the similar names and that they look like us, I'm sure," said Nathan, trying to explain away any similarities between the Old West men and them.

"The guy sounded exactly like you, Nathan. He might've even been who delivered the baby; did you ever do that?"

"No, never," lied Jackson, worried that Chris would start to get suspicious that his vision was somehow linked to him. Chris was getting closer to the truth, and might get suspicious that something was being kept from him by the Whitelighter. All witches knew that Whitelighters and Elders knew more than they told the witches - so Chris was likely to wonder if Jackson knew something that the witch didn't about his most recent vision.

"I like what this cowboy's wearing - there's something sinister about his all black outfit. No one would dare mess with him, I bet."

"I'm sure you're right there, Chris, but I don't think all black would suit you, even if it is a suitable color for Halloween." If Chris dressed up too much like his gunslinger ancestor, Nathan was scared that something bad would happen - he was already getting a bad feeling after hearing about Chris's vision. What if it was a sign that something was about to happen to stop the prophecy from being fulfilled?

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

On Wednesday after school, Gloria continued on Vin's costume, having him try on the pinned material of the Sheriff's jacket and pants to see how it fitted. She planned to work on JD's after dinner-time, then Chris's after the two youngest had gone to bed.

"Vin, you're as wriggly as JD," complained Gloria, as the young boy moaned as another pin from his costume stuck in him. JD had been far luckier despite being just as mobile as his half-brother.

"I can' help it - I need ta go, Ma'am."

"You should've gone before you came in here, child. And what have I told you about calling me Ma'am? It's Gloria, remember."

"Sorry, Gloria," apologized Vin, wishing he could leave so he could have his adoptive father or Nathan heal his pin-pricks. Whitelighters and even half-Whitelighters couldn't heal their own wounds - and not just because it would be personal gain.

"There has to be an easier way to do this," said Gloria with a sigh. "Those pins aren't being too kind to you, are they, Dear?" She could tell that the little boy wasn't happy about the pins pricking him.

"Only like havin' shots, Gloria - I'm fine, really." Being a half-Whitelighter, Vin was naturally skilled at hiding negative emotions. Sometimes though, he did it when he didn't intend to, and people not in the know about him being magical probably thought he was uncaring.

"I'm glad Josiah's sorting out his own costume - I've got three to complete before Friday night or it won't be a costume party. Help me take this off then you can run along."

Vin stood still and helped Gloria take the partial cowboy costume off him. Then he hurriedly dressed in his own clothes and ran to the downstairs bathroom, now quite desperate for the toilet.

"Mizz Potter?" called JD, as he walked noisily down the stairs.

"How many times must I ask you to call me Gloria?" said the woman, trying not to sound stressed.

"Sorry, Gloria. I was thinkin' - 'Siah's going to be an Indian all on his own. I wanna be one too to keep him company."

Gloria smiled. "That's very sweet of you, but I've already started your cowboy outfit. There's not enough time to change it now. I'm sure Josiah won't mind being the only Indian." She wondered how Josiah was getting on with his costume at his apartment.

"O-kay," agreed JD, reluctantly. "Can I see Vin's costume?"

"It isn't finished yet - it won't look too good 'til it's all done. I'm going to get started on dinner now - we're having salad tonight. Once Vin's out of the bathroom you two can go and play upstairs." Dinner wouldn't be ready for about an hour, so Gloria wanted the boys to be preoccupied enough that they wouldn't keep asking if dinner was ready yet. That was what they did if they weren't busy enough around meal-times.

The little boy looked at the incomplete Halloween costumes lying on the table. "You WILL finish them by Friday, won't you?" he fretted. If the costumes weren't done by then, he was worried that the party would be canceled.

"Of course I will, Dear - I'll make sure they're all ready by then," promised Gloria, wishing she hadn't said she'd make three costumes as it was harder work than she'd expected. "I just heard the bathroom door, so run along and play with your brother now. I'll call you when dinner's nearly done."

JD ran out of the room and crept up on Vin who was walking upstairs. Then the little boy put a hand on Vin's shoulder. Vin screamed, not knowing that JD had gone downstairs while he was in the bathroom.

Running into the hallway after hearing the scream, Gloria stopped in her tracks as she noticed Vin turned toward JD on the stairs.

"Don't scare me like that ever again, JD or I'll orb you to the Underworld and leave you there," threatened the older boy, very angry at his little brother.

"I was just playing, Vin," said JD, before starting to cry.

"Vincent Michael Tanner!" fumed Gloria. "Don't say such things to JD. He didn't mean any harm, although he shouldn't have done it in the first place."

The younger boy wiped his eyes on his sleeves and then apologized first. "I'm sorry, Gloria. I thought-ed it would be fun to scare him, but it wasn't. I didn't know I'd make him scream like that and I won't never do it again, I promise. I'm sorry, Vin."

Chris stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at the two boys. "What's going on?"

"I creeped-ed up on Vin and scared-ed him for a joke. But he thought-ed it was a nasty demon and he said if I ever do it again he'll orb me to the Underworld and won't bring me back."

"It's dangerous to play on the stairs, JD - someone could fall and hurt themselves," said Chris sternly. "Vin, you shouldn't make such threats to your younger brother - EVER!"

"So, you do learn from your own experiences, Christopher," said Ezra, from the entrance of the Magic Room upstairs. He had been in there alone, still trying to write a spell to turn him into a super-hero without any personal gain consequences.

"Ezra, I've got everything under control."

"JD is still in a state of emotional distress though. It's a good thing a fight didn't break out or someone could've ended up in an unconscious heap on the hallway carpet."

"Boys, I can handle this without your help, thank you," said Gloria, annoyed that the older sons were trying to take away her authority over the younger children. "Dinner will be a while yet, so I suggest you go and find things to do upstairs to keep you out of trouble. I'll call when it's nearly ready."

"Yes, Mom," said three boys at once, causing Gloria to grin.

When Ezra belatedly answered, "Yes, Mrs. Potter," he received a glare from Gloria for not calling her the right name, after being told on many occasions not to call her "Mrs. Potter."

"Ezra, if you call me 'Mrs. Potter again', I swear I'll scream," promised Gloria sternly.

Little chuckles escaped Vin and JD, who both received a stern look from their adoptive mother. They both fell silent and then ran upstairs to play.

"My apologies, Gloria," said Ezra, not sounding very sincere. He had always been told to address people formally - even ones he knew. His real mother had always told him it wasn't 'proper' to call people by their Christian names.

"Apology accepted, Dear," said Gloria, with a small smile. Eventually she'd break Ezra's programming and make him always use the first names of people he knew when addressing them.

Chris gently took hold of Ezra's wrist. "I need to tell you something in private, Ezra. Let's go."

"Don't go getting up to any mischief, boys."

"We won't, Mom. We're only going to talk."

Then Chris and Ezra walked along the upstairs passage, and after retrieving the Old West book from his bedroom, Chris led his younger brother into the Magic Room.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

"Ezra," began Chris, receiving a questioning look from his brother, "I had a third premonition of the Old West era." Chris had been receiving Old West premonitions when he touched certain photos in the old history book that Gloria had borrowed from the local library. He'd had one each day, starting with the one relating to his ancestor on Monday. Chris had decided to share his recent premonitions with Ezra after he'd had two from photos in the same book, which seemed unusual to him.

"Really? Who did you see this time? Josiah, perhaps?" Ezra found Chris's Old West premonitions preposterous, as his brother had never had so many happy premonitions so close together before and never usually from photos in books. Actually, Ezra wasn't sure if Chris had ever received premonitions from photographs or other types of pictures.

Pictures of objects or people wouldn't relate to their subjects unless the subjects actually had physical contact with them. If there had been no contact between the subject and the picture, then it wouldn't normally give a witch a premonition - unless someone else magical had planted a vision in it. Ezra didn't think it likely that anyone would have done such a thing to the photos in the library book. "Chris, I don't understand how reproduced photos can give you premonitions of their subjects."

"Me, neither. Just before I got the first one, I thought I'd see an event involving the last person who touched the book. This time I saw your ancestor..." Chris began to recount what had happened when he first went into the Magic Room after school that day.

**To be continued...**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

When Chris had arrived home from high school on Wednesday, he'd immediately gone upstairs to continue reading about the history of the Old West; he'd chosen his cowboy costume already, and Gloria would continue to work on it with him later. In particular, he would continue reading about the town of Four Corners which seemed to be a very colorful town with its seven very different peacekeepers.

Upon turning the page, Chris was astonished to see a photograph of a man who looked like an adult version of Ezra in a different era. It stated his name as "Edward Peter Simpson," meaning he had exactly the same initials as the half-demon witch. If only the photo weren't black and white, then Chris would be able to tell if the man had the same eye and hair color as Ezra. All the book's photos were copies of ones that had been taken a long time ago, before color pictures had been developed.

A man referred to as "J. Steele" had taken the photo of "Edward" that was in the book. Mr. Steele was a writer who'd first visited the town of Four Corners, hoping to write a book about the town's infamous seven peacekeepers. The man had then written a small book after his visit, glamorizing the seven's experiences. Years later, he had re-visited the town in the hope of writing a sequel. Unfortunately, Steele had always been too courageous and foolish during gun-fights, and had died from a gun-shot wound before he'd even started writing the second book.

Chris ran a finger over the photograph, hoping he'd receive a premonition relating to "Edward." After a few minutes of waiting, Chris was finally rewarded for his patience, and received his third premonition from the library book.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

In a crowded saloon in Four Corners, a man with short mid-brown hair and green eyes sat at a card table playing poker with two other men. He wore a red jacket over a white silk shirt, and his black pants looked like they were made from expensive material. His two opponents looked more like regular men of that time, while the green-eyed man looked like he was better bred and wealthy.

"Gentlemen, I regret to announce that fortune is at last smilin' down on me," announced the brown-haired man, in a southern drawl. He placed his cards, face-up, on the table and smiled, his gold tooth glinting. The man had a very good hand of cards that couldn't be beaten.

"How d' you do it, Ezra?" asked the youngest player, with shoulder length, dark-brown hair. Judging by the accent, he was from back East.

"Numerous years of experience have enabled me to become a highly skilled Poker player, Mr. Dunne."

"I say ya cheated, Ez," said the slightly older looking man, standing up. "I demand a rematch."

Ezra looked up at the taller brown-haired man, suddenly towering above him. "Mr. Wilmington, I would be delighted to partake in a further game; but it will have to wait until I've finished my imminent rendezvous with Miss Cheshire."

Mr. Dunne stood up, preparing to leave. "How're things going with her, Ezra? You've been seeing her a whole month now."

Ezra accidentally gave a brief smile, before quickly blanking his expression to answer the youngest man's question. "A gentleman never discloses the fine details of his friendships to anyone." He started to pick up the cards and his winnings.

Wilmington smiled humorously at Dunne. "I guess that means ol' Ez is just 'bout ready to settle down with J.J."

The southerner looked sternly at the man. "I never made such a revelation, so I'd prefer if you didn't jump to conclusions about me and my female companion. I'd also prefer if you didn't discuss our friendship amongst yourselves." After collecting his things together, Ezra then left the saloon through the batwing doors, letting them swing loudly shut behind him.

"I bet Ezra's mother will love her," said the younger man with a grin.

"Real shame Ez has to use that other name 'cause of Mr. Cheshire's dislike of all Standishes," muttered Wilmington.

"Besides that, it's a match made in Heaven, Brothers," said an older man with graying hair and wearing a long light-brown coat, as he walked over to them.

"I never thought Ezra would fall for a woman who wears pants though," commented JD; "I didn't like Casey much to start with because she dressed and acted more like a boy."

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Chris finished recounting his latest Old West premonition to Ezra and then directed a questioning look at his brown-haired brother. He was wondering what his half-demon adopted brother thought about this latest development.

"So this man had to take on an assumed identity because of his girlfriend's family's dislike of all Standishes?" checked Ezra, startled that people would be so against his family name.

"Sounds that way," answered Chris, remembering something Ezra had told him about his mother. "Didn't you say that Maude wasn't very popular with people?"

"You are correct, Chris. If dishonesty is a trait that has been passed down through my family's generations, then I shall be the one to break the curse and ensure my family name is no longer so ill-favored."

Larabee stood up from where he had been sat on the floor and began to pace the room. "Why am I getting all these premonitions of our probable ancestors - all with the same names as us?"

Ezra looked thoughtful, trying to understand why Chris had received all his recent premonitions from the same book about the Old West. There had to be a reason for the visions all coming from the same time-period and all featuring the adopted Potter sons' probable ancestors. Chris wouldn't have received so many from the same object (although they were all from different photos) unless there was a good reason. "Perhaps it's a message?" he suggested to the blond, who was still pacing.

Suddenly standing still, Chris looked at Ezra, surprised by the boy's idea. "If it IS a message, it's far too cryptic for anyone to understand - I bet even Josiah couldn't decipher it."

"The first one involved a child being born to the wife of a 'Chris' who looked similar to you and the second was of some people with our names helping an old lady and her niece fight against miscreants attempting to force them to sell their land inexpensively."

"Except for that one, I think they were about our ancestors starting families - the Larabees got a son, and your likely ancestor started dating his possible future wife."

Nathan suddenly orbed into the room, having listened to the conversation from elsewhere, as he could hear the voices of all his charges inside his head. "Chris, you have to stop lookin' at the book - it's evil." The Whitelighter walked to the book lying on the table and tried to lift it. The book wouldn't move though, as if held down by an unseen force.

Moving closer to the table, Chris put both hands on the book, not wanting Nathan to take it. "There was no evil in my premonitions, Nate; so I think you're wrong. I can sense fear coming from you - possibly because you know more about my premonitions than you're letting on and are afraid we'll find out the truth." Chris took his hands off the book and crossing his arms, glared fiercely at the Whitelighter. He waited for Nathan to tell him all he knew relating to the Old West premonitions.

Nathan wasn't easily scared by Chris's glares; he had been trained to be strong and never reveal more than was allowed to his charges. "Let it go, Chris - stop looking in the book," he requested. His tone meant he was deadly serious in his request. Even the Elders weren't sure what the blond's historical premonitions meant, but they were working on it and would call Nathan when they found out more.

"I like getting those premonitions though - they're joyful visions of people in the Old West starting families, and it's enjoyable to learn about them that way."

"Okay; but I think all those premonitions could mean trouble's brewin'. I'm goin' to check back with the Elders - maybe they can find out why the photos are causin' all those visions for you." Nathan couldn't let on that the Elders were already trying to figure out why Chris kept getting premonitions of his and the brothers' Old West ancestors. Telling Chris that the Elders were already looking into his seemingly harmless visions could make Chris suspicious. The people in the visions could just coincidentally have the Potter sons' names - although it didn't seem that likely. It was vital that the prophecy not be revealed to any of the witches until the Elders gave the say-so.

As Chris and Ezra watched, Nathan orbed back to the heavens; both witches were envious of the Whitelighter's light-show method of fast transportation. Ezra's Blinking power wasn't so beautiful, as Blinking just made someone disappear from one place and appear in another without any fancy effects.

**To be continued...**


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: In this chapter there's a female witch mentioned - I got her name from "Charmed", where she's an ancestor of the Halliwell sisters.**

**Chapter 4**

Whenever a witch received a premonition, the Elders would as well, meaning that they knew all about the one Chris had received on Monday afternoon from the history book. A short while after Chris received the one of the blonde woman in the Old West delivering her new son, two Elders called an emergency meeting, inviting a large group of Senior Whitelighters and Nathan.

The Elders suspected something was wrong, as the prophesied witch wasn't supposed to receive premonitions of ancestors - those could somehow lead to him discovering the prophecy too soon. The Elders had long ago agreed that the brothers would only be told of the prophecy when their group was complete, and they were all over eighteen. No brother would be told sooner than that. Nathan knew because he was a Whitelighter and could have easily read about the prophecy at the heavens' library if he hadn't been told of it first.

The Elders had an outside meeting area in the heavens where they simply sat on the ground or stood up when they were assembled there. Trees grew all the way around the perimeter of the area, closing it off to uninvited angels.

Once everyone was assembled for the meeting, the most senior Elder present, Marcus, who was a tall and well-built African-American angel, addressed them. "I am concerned by Chris Larabee's most recent vision. It came from the history book that Gloria Potter borrowed from their local library."

The second most senior Elder there, who was known only as Orion, although it wasn't his real name, spoke from where he stood beside Marcus. "No one was watching Gloria then, so we don't know why she took that book. It seems very suspicious that she seemingly borrowed a book by accident that contained information about the town and residents in the same place as the Prophesier lived. There are a lot of books about the Old West in that library, and she just happened to take the one that contains pictures of all the prophesied group's ancestors - except for you, Nathan, of course. You're the only one of the prophesied group whose picture is in there since you were alive back then."

Nathan nodded to confirm what Orion had said.

Then Marcus spoke again. "Terri Greer, we have decided that you will go to the Underworld and find out if anyone evil made sure Gloria took that book. They all know that telling the witches of the prophecy too soon could play havoc with their lives, besides it being against our wishes for them to be told yet."

The female Senior Whitelighter nodded. "I haven't been there for quite a while, so I'll be delighted to pay a visit again and see what I can overhear." Whitelighters and evil beings weren't on talking terms, so when Whitelighters visited the Underworld, they orbed there and usually remained invisible; a power they didn't use often. The angelic beings could also use a special power to stop them being sensed by anyone - so they could remain undetected while they were spying on their enemies.

"You must go there immediately, before any harm can be done due to the premonition."

Terri orbed immediately out of the meeting place.

Orion then voiced his idea. "Someone with knowledge of Evil's plans could have planted those premonitions in the book to forewarn the Potters, and then forced Gloria to borrow it. Planting premonitions isn't something many magic beings can do, so some of you should investigate anyone with that ability. If we find someone who did that, we can find out if something sinister is being planned." Orion smiled as several Senior Whitelighters volunteered to help track down magical beings with premonition planting abilities. "Good, with all of you on that mission it won't take too long to investigate all the possessors of that power."

Marcus looked at Orion then turned back to the angelic assembly and spoke. "There is nothing else we can do for now except wait for any findings and see if Chris receives more premonitions involving the prophesied group's ancestors. This meeting is officially over."

Whitelighters and Elders started to orb away.

Nathan stood from where he had remained sat on the ground close to and facing the two Elders. He'd been given that spot, since the meeting concerned him as much as the prophesied witches. "Chris does sometimes receive premonitions for no reason, so that could be what this is. We could be makin' mountains out of molehills over this."

Orion explained to Nathan why he thought they weren't making a big deal without reason. "That premonition showed that the Old West Chris Larabee had a son also named Chris - indication to the witch Chris that his name was passed down through his family line. This alone wouldn't seem important, but a "Nathan" who looked and sounded almost the same as you delivered his ancestor. That doesn't seem like a meaningless vision to me, and the other Elders all agree that the premonition must have a significant meaning. Let me tell you of an experience one of my past charges had. Please sit down; this will take some time to recount."

Nathan sat back down on his chosen spot of ground; it was still warm from his presence there during the assembly.

Orion began to recount an event in his past when he'd been a Whitelighter.

One of his charges back then was Brianna Potter: a red-haired female witch with the power of premonition. One day she received a premonition after touching an old painting of her mother, who'd been burnt at the stake after her town had discovered she was a witch. After the witch trial, Brianna had been spirited away by her aunt, who had then bought her up to embrace her witch side. As an adult, Brianna had saved many innocents from evil and earned a very good reputation in the Wicca world.

In the vision she saw a large gray demon (as her premonitions were only in black and white) watching her mother being burned. Then he looked at Brianna and strode toward her. That was when the vision ended.

Brianna knew that there hadn't been a demon there when she was a little girl, so she guessed someone could've sent him there from the present. The witch then sent her Whitelighter, Orion, to the Underworld to find out if anyone there was behind a plot to change her family's past. Demons usually had someone giving them orders, so it was likely that someone evil had a reason for sending him back - perhaps someone who Brianna had upset in some way.

Orion soon returned from his mission and revealed that a warlock wanted to stop Brianna growing up to be the witch who vanquished his best friend, another warlock. He'd sent a demon back to when Brianna had lost her mother, to stop her being taken to safety by her aunt. As a day in the past would move at the same speed as a day in the present, it meant Brianna had some time left before her past self would be put to death for being a witch's daughter.

She then looked up the demon in her magic book, identifying him from his picture, and found out he was the Time-changer demon, who'd never been successfully vanquished. Brianna created her own recipe for the vanquishing potion along with a vanquishing spell that would ensure the demon was really vanquished. Then she used a spell from her book to travel back in time to the demon and vanquish him before he ruined her past. The potion and spell worked perfectly, and Brianna added the vanquishing information to her magic book for future generations, as there would be more Time-changer demons in the future.

In conclusion, Brianna's premonition of her mother involving a demon who hadn't been there originally, had alerted her to the possibility that evil could upset her present by poisoning her past, so the premonition had been sent to warn her.

After finishing his story, Orion looked seriously as Nathan. "Brianna Potter is related to Terrence Potter, although very distantly, and it is possible that history could be repeating itself which is why Chris received that premonition. If that's true, Terri will return with evidence to back it up."

"How many Earth days might it take Terri to find this out?" asked Nathan. He knew that the Underworld was a very big place and it could be ages before Terri found any evidence to prove a Time-changer demon was going to attempt to ruin the Potter sons' present.

"Terri should find out by Wednesday," said Orion, sounding very sure of his answer.

"I just hope somethin' bad doesn't happen before she gets back." Wednesday was days away on the Earth plane, and there was plenty of time for evil to wreak havoc - if Chris's premonition was a warning. Nathan still thought it was just a meaningless vision though - otherwise there would have been a demon or something else evil in Chris's vision. Brianna had just been lucky in her guess when she'd suspected her premonition was a warning.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

On Wednesday, in the late afternoon, Terri finally returned from the Underworld, having narrowly avoided being killed by a Darklighter who'd somehow managed to detect her. The poison in his arrows would have killed her Whitelighter form, meaning she wouldn't exist on any plane unless her spirit was quickly found and magically transformed into a ghost. Luckily, Terri had quickly orbed away before the poison arrow struck her.

She told Orion of her findings from the Underworld, then orbed to the Spirit plane where she could take a break from working, while spending some time with her parents, who were both ghosts.

Orion orbed to a fairly small, round white structure that resembled a summerhouse, and then he sat on the bench inside which was attached all around to the walls. Then he telepathically called his Elder friend, named Julius. Orion wanted to share Terri's news with him before he told the other Elders.

Julius arrived shortly after he'd been called, and sat down on the bench beside his friend. Both Elders had the appearances of men in their mid-thirties with shoulder-length, wavy blond hair.

"Terri has finally returned with news," revealed Orion, his voice not giving away how he felt.

"News? Good or bad news?" asked Julius impatiently.

"It is bad news as suspected, my friend," announced Orion to Julius.

"There is no good news to come out of the Underworld," replied Julius, retaining a blank expression mirroring that of his friend. It wouldn't help if they let any emotions interfere. "What news has Terri returned with?"

Orion put his hand to his eye and wiped away a tear that he couldn't keep away, upon remembering the Whitelighter's grim news. "Twin-brother warlocks are planning to prevent at least several, if not all, of the seven from being born. We cannot do anything to stop them without revealing the prophecy - and you know it is forbidden to tell them. It would put them in even more danger if they knew."

Julius draped an arm over his friend's shoulders. "I'm quite certain we can resolve this without needing to reveal the truth to the witches." He was about to say that Nathan would know what to do, when that particular Whitelighter appeared in the small shelter.

"I sensed despair, and wondered if it had anything to do with Chris's past premonitions," said Nathan, having the distinctive feeling that the Elder's despair wasn't about anything else.

"Twin male warlocks are planning an attempt to prevent the prophecy's completion," informed Julius, hoping that Nathan would have an idea how they could stop history from being altered without needing to disclose the prophecy to the Potter witches.

Nathan gave the Elders a confident grin, shocking both the Elders with his positive expression. "Then someone will just have to stop them."

"As I suspected, a demon has been sent back in time to alter the lives of at least some of the prophesied witches' ancestors," revealed Orion. "Elder law prevents us from altering the past to undo all changes evil makes. We can only do that once it is known that the changes made to the past are effecting the present."

"Sometimes I really hate the Elders' rules! You're sayin' that somethin' bad has to happen in the present before we're allowed to repair any tampered with past events?" Nathan let his anger show in his voice and face.

"Yes, Nathan, I'm afraid so," answered Orion sadly, "but the law is there for the world's safety. Every time history is changed, it also alters the present - we can't risk a chain reaction that could ruin the future for the prophesied group."

Julius rubbed his friend's back comfortingly, feeling his despair. "Nathan, something has to be done by the witches - the rule of not re-changing history until the effects of the previous change are known doesn't apply to them."

Orion then revealed what the female Whitelighter had confirmed. "Terri reports that it is indeed a Time-changer demon being sent back to change history. So the witches need to vanquish him before he causes any damage to their present."

Orion's sadness and despair were hurting Nathan, and the Whitelighter had to get out of there before he allowed himself to get too upset by his superior's condition. All full Whitelighters and Elders had a strong connection to other Whitelighters and Elders, meaning that if one of them was hurt or upset, it would upset any others nearby.

"Chris and Ezra are already starting to suspect there's a reason for those visions - I'll just have to make up an explanation that doesn't involve the prophecy. If Chris has any premonitions of evil things happening to his ancestors, I'll explain it by saying that evil wants to get rid of his powerful family. Farewell for now." Then Nathan orbed out before Orion's hopelessness got to him even more.

**To be continued...**


	6. Chapter 5

**Warning: Something shocking, sad and unexpected happens to a character in this chapter, but I promise things will improve for them before the story's end. Also, a swearword is used by an under-eighteen boy because of some shocking news he receives.**

**Chapter 5**

A few hours after Nathan had been told of the warlocks' plot, Vin and JD were happily playing with cars on their bedroom carpet. They'd already forgotten about the earlier incident on the stairs. Suddenly, JD slumped forward from where he sat on the floor. The little boy had fallen unconscious; startling his half-brother.

Vin crawled over the floor the short distance to JD and checked his wrist for a pulse as Gloria had taught him. JD's pulse was faint and Vin felt sure he wouldn't be much good in trying to heal his brother alone, as his half-Whitelighter healing power was very limited. He stood up and called for Nathan - the Potters' Whitelighter would be able to heal the youngest brother.

Orbs appeared in the room, and then disappeared, leaving the Potter's kind Whitelighter, who always kept the appearance of his Old West self at twenty-six years old, standing there and looking concerned. To hide the fact he was from the Old West, he always wore clothes that fitted the time-period he was currently living in. "What's wrong?" he asked, not seeing JD lying on the floor.

"JD's fainted an' his pulse is weak," answered Vin hurriedly. "Ya got ta heal him." The boy was shaking with fear because he was worried his younger brother was too far gone to be healed.

Nathan moved to the youngest boy and crouched down to work his healing magic on JD. The Whitelighter put both hands over where the little boy's heart was and thought of his love for the child - love was the trigger for all Whitelighters' healing power.

After a few minutes, the healing glow still hadn't appeared under Nathan's hands, meaning that he couldn't heal the child. "I'm sorry, it's not workin' - you'll have to help me lay him on the bed - then we'll find another way to make him better."

After Nathan and Vin had laid JD on his bed, a gentle ringing like wind chimes was heard, that indicated the Elders were calling Nathan to them in the heavens.

"I better go and see what they want," said Nathan, upset that he couldn't stay and help JD for longer. "Vin, you go and quickly get Gloria here and tell her I'll be back soon as I can."

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

In the Potters' Magic Room and waiting for Nathan's return, Chris and Ezra were getting impatient, not knowing that their Whitelighter was helping their little brother at that moment.

"We'll have to work this out ourselves," said Chris, "Nathan's obviously too busy." The blond picked up the history book from the floor and closed it.

"What are you doing?" asked Ezra, unsure of why his brother had closed the book when they should go further into it and see if there were any more premonitions to be had from further old photographs.

"When I touched individual pictures, I only got a vision about each one. By closing the book and touching it, I might get a vision that links all the previous ones," explained the blond, surprised that his usually smart brother hadn't worked it out before him.

"Oh," said Ezra, feeling at a loss for words at his embarrassment for not being the one to think of that method to help them.

Chris held the book and waited until he received a new premonition. He didn't have to wait too long before he felt the premonition coming on, and then he closed his eyes to see it.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Morning had dawned on Four Corners and the sun shone down on the early risers in the town's main street. Among the early birds, a beautiful young woman with long, loose, blonde hair was strolling up and down the street handing out copies of a newspaper to the townsfolk. Looking at the cover, she smiled at the photograph in the center of the page.

"Mornin' Mrs. Travis," greeted a grinning young man with short, tidy, dark-brown hair. Strangely, he wasn't wearing a hat like he usually did outside.

"Good morning, JD. The barber did a great job with your hair."

The young man ran a hand through his hair. "Thanks. Casey's not so fond of it unfortunately."

"How is she this morning?" asked Mrs. Travis. "I hope she's recovering from that stomach flu."

"She's feeling much better, thanks, Mrs. Travis. Looks like we won't have to call off the wedding after all."

The woman smiled. "Good, I expect she's relieved about that. Paper?"

JD accepted the paper with a polite "Thanks," and studied the story Mary Travis had written about his upcoming wedding to Casey Wells. The date on the newspaper was clearly visible. "I'm glad you decided to include that photo after all - Casey looks so pretty in it."

"Yes, she does, JD. If you'll excuse me, I have to hand out the rest of these. I'll see you later."

Mary left JD standing there, reading the article that accompanied the picture. It was a quality article describing the couple as fine upstanding citizens of their community. JD smiled.

"Ya've come a long way, Kid," said a man who was slightly older looking with shoulder length, mid-brown hair. "Jus' look at ya now - all grown up an' gettin' married t'morrow."

"I've always been grown up, Vin," retorted the younger man.

"We gotta go an' saddle up - Chris wants us ta ride ta Eagle Bend fer somethin'."

The men walked to the stables that weren't far away. Once inside, Vin closed the door behind him and JD. Then he morphed into a large gray demon. A large double edged knife appeared in his hand and he thrust it into the younger man's chest where his heart was. JD collapsed on the ground, dying.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Chris re-opened his eyes a few seconds after the premonition ended, looking upset by what he'd just witnessed - it was terrible that a demon had traveled back in time and killed JD's ancestor.

"Judging by your expression, I presume you just viewed something far less pleasant than your previous visions?" questioned Ezra. He was desperate to know what upsetting scene his brother had witnessed.

Chris was trembling, scared of what implications the historical premonition could have on their present. He was pretty certain that what had happened was a real event, but since their JD was still there to his knowledge, maybe the ancestor's present had only just been changed. Chris got the feeling that all the ancestors in his premonitions were the ones who started the branches of family trees that culminated in the adopted Potter sons.

Ezra was scared by his brother's shivering - it wasn't behavior he'd seen in Chris before. "Chris? Should I get Mrs. Potter?"

"He k-killed JD!"

A stunned expression appeared on the half-demon witch's face. "Who killed our youngest brother?"

"No, not that JD - the Old West one," said Chris, managing to calm down slightly, realizing that being scared wouldn't help anyone.

"Oh my! That's awful - but why would you get a premonition of how he dies?"

Chris began to nervously pace around the room. "He wasn't married to Casey yet - the demon tricked him into the stables by posing as their Vin with his glamour power, and then killed him. That photo I saw in the book is of JD Dunne AFTER he married Casey Wells." Suddenly, having an idea, Chris walked to the history book and began to flick through the pages. He continued to flick through until he reached the end of it. "It's not in there - their wedding photo's gone as well as the info on them!"

"Oh crap!" swore Ezra; the latest development making him realize that something seriously terrible was happening relating to his adoptive family.

Then, both of them feeling concerned about their own JD, they rushed out of the room to Vin and JD's shared bedroom. They found a distraught Vin and Gloria there, staring at JD's empty bed.

"What happened?" asked Chris. He hoped that JD was just out of the room for the moment and the others were upset about something really minor.

"He just vanished," revealed Gloria through her crying as she pointed to the empty bed of JD Dunne. She was clearly extremely distressed by the latest development, as she started crying loudly. That was something she didn't usually do, so the seriousness of the disappearance hit Chris hard.

Chris quickly walked to his mother and put his arms around her, turning her to face his chest, where she cried into it. "We'll fix this - we'll bring him back, I promise."

"How can you bring him back when he's vanished?" asked Gloria, looking up at Chris.

"Mom, I had a premonition of a past JD Dunne. He was killed by a demon before his wedding day. I got it from that history book you got from the library. I've had some others, but those events were all happy ones..."

Before Chris could continue, Nathan orbed into the room. Everyone was too shocked and upset by JD's disappearance to notice that he'd appeared there quicker than usual. "There are two teenage warlocks behind this - they've sent a Time-changer demon back in time to alter history so that it ruins the present for at least one of your sons or me. Everyone in the Underworld knows that we're a formidable group who have done a lot of good in this world and will do even more in the future, so they want to divide us in any way they can. If someone permanently destroys any of your sons, Gloria, the evil responsible will be promoted next in line to the Source."

"Chris - you and Nathan should go to the past to before when their JD was killed, and vanquish the Time-changer demon so he never has a chance to kill their JD. Then our JD will come back," commanded Gloria, regaining her composure as she realized that JD would come back if things in the past were put right. They needed to start acting straight away before the demon could indirectly threaten any more of her sons' lives.

Chris nodded in agreement. "We'll find the demon in The Book and take whatever we need to vanquish him when we travel back."

The Whitelighter then shook his head, keeping a blank expression to avoid making the sons or mother suspicious of him. "Ma'am," he began, instantly receiving a glare from Gloria, "I mean, Gloria; I should remain here to help take care of the rest of your family in case anyone decides to attack or we have to protect any innocents. Ezra's responsible enough to go with Chris instead."

"Indeed I am, thank you, Mr. Jackson," agreed Ezra, happy that at least Nathan accepted how responsible he was. Nathan usually had a lot of faith in Ezra - sometimes more than the boy's family. When Ezra had first come to the family, Nathan had been wary of the boy because he was a half-demon as well as a witch. There were very few half-demons around, and as Nathan had never known any before, he hadn't known if half-demons could be trusted.

Since coming to the family, Ezra had gone off on many secret missions and single-handedly accomplished feats for the side of good. Most of the missions still remained secret from the rest of the family, except for the few Ezra had told Chris about; so the Potters didn't know how responsible the boy really was.

Nathan nearly always monitored Ezra because he was worried that a half-demon still had some allegiance with whole demons and might betray the side of good for them. The Whitelighter could always sense where Ezra was, as Whitelighters could sense all their charges, so could sense if the boy wasn't where he said he was going. Witches or Whitelighters couldn't be contacted or sensed if at least one of them was in the Underworld. If Ezra was there, then Nathan would know because he would be unable to sense the half-demon witch. Whenever Ezra returned from his missions, he was cornered by Nathan and then given the third degree. That way, Nathan learned just how trustworthy and dependent the boy was.

Sometimes Nathan and Ezra fell out because of differences of opinion due to their very different backgrounds. The boy's mother, Maude, who liked to con people out of their money, rather than work hard to earn it, had raised Ezra. During his time with his real mother, the boy had learnt several skills that truly good people didn't use much, if at all: lock-picking, lying, showing no emotions, and cheating at cards. Nathan's background was far more pure - more so since he'd become a Whitelighter.

"Ezra can't heal Chris if he gets hurt though," argued Gloria, thinking that Nathan's excuses were very feeble - there must be some other reason why the Whitelighter didn't want to go back in time. "I'd prefer you to go with him as I'd rather keep my younger sons here where I can see them, after what happened to JD."

"Gloria, I'm quite capable of protecting us both from harm," said Ezra, really wanting to visit the past and see their ancestors. He had always been quite independent and felt certain that he and Chris would be able to fix the past easily enough if they traveled back without an adult.

"I can understand that you want me along to heal Chris if he gets hurt, Gloria; but I can't go back there; and Ezra could still disappear whether you can watch him or not. Anyway, I'm sure they had people with enough medical knowledge back then to take care of Chris or Ezra if they get hurt - both are careful enough to make sure they don't get hurt too bad." Nathan knew there was a medical person in the town of Four Corners at the time of Chris's premonitions, as he'd been their unofficial doctor then.

"NATHAN! Why are you trying so hard to avoid helping fix history - meaning I can't get my little boy back?" asked Gloria. She wanted to make the Whitelighter feel so guilty that he'd agree to travel back in time with Chris.

"History is very fragile, Gloria," said Nathan sternly. "The slightest change there could have a major impact on the present AND future. I don't want to be responsible for an event that ruins your family's present."

"But you don't mind if Chris is responsible for that? He'd be less likely to change history with you there to guide him. He's only eighteen and I just can't send him so far away without an older adult." What was wrong with the usually brave Whitelighter?

"Then send Josiah," snapped Nathan, before he orbed away from the room to escape being persuaded to go. The truth was that he couldn't risk seeing his past self there - if he did, he could accidentally do or say something that would stop him becoming a Whitelighter after he died. That would stop him from helping the Potter family, and he didn't want that.

"I can't send Josiah - he'd be more useful against any attacks here," answered Gloria belatedly, as Nathan had already disappeared seemingly faster than usual. She realized she should call Josiah soon - he was at home and had no idea what was happening at his parents' house.

"Chris, you'll have to travel back with Ezra to before when you saw their JD die. First, you'll vanquish the demon responsible, and then you'll make sure history is put right. You may need to write your own time-travel spell if there's nothing suitable in The Book, and word it so you go back to the right time. I'll keep a close eye on the others and watch for any signs of trouble. If they start fading like JD did, I'll try and get a premonition from something of theirs and send Terrence and Josiah back to that time." Gloria was then reminded that her husband still hadn't arrived home from the garage, and wondered what was keeping him.

"Mom," addressed Chris, who'd been waiting impatiently for his mother and Nathan to stop talking. "I had previous premonitions that all took place in the same Old West town. And I saw an 'Ezra Standish', a 'Josiah', a 'Nathan', a 'Vin' and the son of a 'Chris Larabee'!"

"You'd best make sure those men don't get attacked as well then," instructed Gloria, surprisingly not startled by the news that men with the names of her sons were in the same town in the past. "If you come into close contact with them, you may get premonitions to tell you if they're going to get attacked as well."

"Mrs. Potter, you could act a little more surprised by the news that we had ancestors with identical names in the same location around the same time," commented Ezra. The boy was amazed by Gloria's calmness to Chris's shocking revelation.

"Anything's possible in this world, Dear. EVEN towns in the past where our ancestors all lived together; nothing surprises me anymore. You'd better hurry and get that time-travel spell written." Gloria ushered both brothers back to the Magic Room - she was worried that if they didn't go soon, more of her adopted sons would start to disappear.

Chris and Ezra went into the Magic Room and began to look through their magical volume for the Time-changer demon.

Gloria remained in the bedroom with Vin, the boy now sat on her lap on the bed, still very upset that his brother had disappeared before his eyes, straight after his pulse had stopped. Now JD was as good as dead, and Vin feared that wouldn't be the end of their troubles that day. All thoughts of the Halloween party had disappeared from Vin's mind - if even just JD was wiped out of their lives forever, no one would feel like celebrating that Friday.

**To be continued...**


	7. Chapter 6

**Warning: Minor swearword used in this chapter.**

**Chapter 6**

Meanwhile, on Wednesday afternoon at the garage where Terrence Potter worked, everything had started going wrong since closing time. The lights had started flickering and then two fuses had blown. Then, to make matters worse, water had started gushing up from the sink's drain. Terrence knew it was being caused by something supernatural, since he didn't usually have so much bad luck all at once. There was certainly no reason for the water to come up out of the sink - that wasn't natural at all.

Unfortunately, Terrence's boss, Thomas, had been away since one o'clock with his wife to celebrate their wedding anniversary. As Terrence was the only other employee of the garage, because there was never enough work to warrant employing more staff, he had to deal with the problems on his own.

Terrence had called Gloria just after five to say he'd be home a bit late, but then another fuse had blown after he'd finished the call, meaning Terrence would be even later in leaving. He finally got annoyed when he was still there at six and couldn't call his wife again because the phone line had gone dead. As Terrence was against cell phones, he didn't have one to use in case of emergency in the belief that he didn't need to take such a precaution.

"Why me?" he asked, looking up at the ceiling. No one replied - supernatural beings knew that Terrence could do major damage to the culprit responsible if they owned up to irritating him. If he didn't blow them up completely, he'd blow up at least one of their limbs, and even evil creatures didn't like losing body parts. "When I find out who is responsible, I promise I'll do some serious damage to you for keeping me away from my family."

Finally, at seven o'clock, all three fuses had been replaced and the water main had been turned off as a temporary solution to the sink problem. Terrence wasn't a plumber, so he didn't know how he could fix it. He'd have to call in a plumber the next day if the sink was still behaving strangely. The man suspected that some invisible evil creature, perhaps a poltergeist, was causing all the problems that evening.

If the male half-Whitelighter witch had known that his youngest adopted son had vanished from existence earlier that evening, he would've suspected that he'd been purposely delayed so he couldn't help his family when they needed him. It did seem like more than just coincidence that Terrence had been delayed from getting home the same night that JD had disappeared.

Terrence finished tidying the garage and then orbed home like he always did - the Elders didn't mind him doing that, as it was so he could get back to his wife and sons quickly to check they were okay. If his orbing was used to return home to protect others, it couldn't be considered as personal gain.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Being a half-Whitelighter meant that Terrence had the power of sensing - he could sense anyone he'd been close to for a long time, such as family members or close friends. With his power of sensing, the half-Whitelighter could sense the current locations and emotions of anyone he'd known long enough. Terrence had just to think whom he wanted to sense, and then he'd sense them. Terrence orbed straight to his wife after detecting where she was; he also sensed that she was very distraught about something.

Since Terrence hadn't been around Vin and JD long enough to be able to sense them as of yet, he couldn't tell that only one of them was in the house. The youngest two sons were judged as too young to stay at friend's houses overnight, so were always both at home when Terrence arrived there after work.

Gloria could always tell when her husband was about to orb into the room where she was - it was a sixth sense she'd developed over the years of being married to a half-Whitelighter witch. "What time do you call this, Terrence Potter?" she asked angrily, as soon as Terrence appeared in the room.

"I'm sorry, Darling," apologized the man, feeling bad for not being home sooner. "I had another fuse blow right after I called and then the phone line died as well, so I couldn't tell you."

"I really feel like cursing right now, but I won't in front of Vin. Something terrible has happened to JD." The emotions of anger, sadness and fear were in the woman's voice now - having to recap what had happened was probably the worse thing Gloria would ever have to tell her husband. "He's been wiped out of our lives."

Mr. Potter looked around for their youngest son's body - he thought Gloria meant that JD was dead. "Where is he?"

"Maybe I should rephrase that - now JD was never born, although we can clearly still remember him being here."

Terrence sat on the bed next to his wife, then took Vin onto his lap, and hugged them both. "Maybe it's related to that history book," he muttered. Terrence was unaware of his second son's premonitions caused by the same book, but he knew about its contents, as he'd had a look the previous evening. He had been slightly worried ever since that the boys' ancestors all being in the one history book could be a bad omen. Being a witch for so long, Terrence had often come across seemingly normal objects that had been revealed as cursed or just magical after causing trouble for innocents.

"Chris has only been receiving good, happy premonitions from that book - until today," explained Gloria. She was feeling more secure now her husband was there. "Today's was of an Old West 'JD Dunne' getting murdered by a demon. He must've got it just as our JD vanished from here."

"Where are Chris and Ezra? Shouldn't they be in here with you and Vin?"

Gloria pointed to the doorway. "They've gone to the Magic Room: first to work out how to vanquish the demon responsible, and then to write a time-travel spell. After that, they'll be going back in time to vanquish the demon and help save that 'JD Dunne'. Hopefully, doing that will bring ours back - otherwise I don't know what we'll do."

Gloria burst into tears at the thought of never seeing their youngest son again - she had grown so attached to JD although they'd only had him about a year. Gloria and Terrence had grown very close to JD and Vin in that time, since both boys received the additional share of attention that the older sons didn't need anymore.

Terrence hugged his wife and Vin close, hoping that Chris and Ezra could save the Dunne family-line's future and prevent any more family lines from being ended at their Old West ancestors. He suspected that could happen if the demon wasn't vanquished soon enough.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Meanwhile up in the heavens, Julius and Orion had detected a supernatural presence in the garage where they knew Terrence Potter worked. They could always sense Terrence when he was there, as he was a half-Whitelighter witch and Elders could sense Whitelighters, witches and other Elders.

Like most Elders, Julius and Orion had both started out as Whitelighters until they had done enough good work to be promoted to Elder status, so they still had Whitelighter powers in addition to their Elder ones. They could also sense large concentrations of magic if it was used somewhere, so they had sensed the supernatural activity in the garage. After they had realized that the presence needed further investigation, both angels orbed to the garage to confront it. They knew it was what had delayed Terrence in getting home to his family, and they needed to find out why.

"Damn it!" cursed the transparent man, with shoulder-length mid-brown hair, upon seeing the orbs appearing. He was sitting on the edge of Terrence's desk with his legs hanging down. It was from there that he had plagued Terrence with all of his bad luck.

Ghosts could choose whether to be visible to humans or not, so this one had chosen to remain unseen by Mr. Potter, knowing what Terrence would do if he saw him. This had been confirmed by Terrence's threat of hurting whoever was responsible for delaying him from leaving work. The half-Whitelighter witch would know instantly that the ghost had delayed him from getting home that evening. Terrence cared so much about his family that he would be furious at anyone who tried to keep him from them.

"You must stop this behavior at once," ordered Julius angrily. He knew that the ghost was the one responsible for the supernatural activity.

"He knows 'bout the prophecy, doesn' he?" was the ghost's response, knowing that he had to be direct with the Elders or he wouldn't get the answer he sought. He knew the two angels were Elders, as they wore the long brown robes of Elders, besides that, Elders were the only magical ones on the side of good who could sense him using his special powers there - as far as he knew. The chance of a witch with a sensing power coming to investigate after sensing all the magic there was quite slim. Why would a witch want to waste their time investigating whenever they sensed a lot of magic being used, when they should instead be protecting innocents and fighting against what they knew was actually evil?

"We refuse to answer your question. You should not have delayed Terrence from returning home when his family needed him most." The Elders knew that JD had been wiped from existence when they'd been unable to sense his presence any more. They saw every premonition Chris had, so had also seen his last one, and had instantly linked it to the young witch's disappearance. Just after Chris's most recent premonition ended, the Elders had tried sensing the present JD, but couldn't, so knew that the Time-changer demon had really killed the gunslinger JD. In doing that, the demon had prevented him from marrying Casey Wells, whose future children with that JD would be the first, but not very powerful, Dunne witches.

Each generation of Dunne witches would then be slightly more powerful than the last, until it reached the present JD, who would eventually become the most powerful of his biological family-line because of the prophecy. If the Elders had gotten an earlier warning to the witches, then the Potter family might have been able to prevent the demon from killing the past JD. Achieving that would have ensured the future safety of his magical descendants. There was still the chance of future threats to the destined powerful magical group; but those would be dealt with when there was prior knowledge of them.

"When Terrence's family needed him most? What're ya talkin' about?" asked the confused male ghost, as he absentmindedly made all the pens in the garage float in mid-air, enjoying what he could do with his ghost supernatural powers. After being a ghost for just over a few years, he had finally learnt to control his powers properly.

"Why did you delay Terrence from getting home?" asked Orion calmly. He did not want to reveal to the male ghost that JD had been deleted from the world.

"'Cause I think he agrees with the rest y'all 'bout keepin' the prophecy secret from his sons - I was tryin' ta help them find out, without him there ta interfere, 'cause I disagree it should be kept from them. Not knowin' is puttin' them in grave danger." If he was honest with the Elders on that, they might be honest with him and say if Terrence really knew about the prophecy involving his sons. "Terrence is already s'spicious 'bout the book." The ghost hadn't meant to mention the history book - now the Elders would know he was behind it; even if they couldn't prove it. He'd possessed Gloria with a ghost power and made her take the book, which he'd placed on the library table before he'd joined with her. The ghost felt bad for doing it - it wasn't a nice thing to do to a good witch - but it had been necessary to make his plan work.

"Then it was you who made Gloria Potter take that book from the library?" Orion remained calm - now was not the time for getting angry with troublesome ghosts. They had never suspected that a ghost wanted to reveal the prophecy to the Potters' sons. The assumption was that a demon or some other evil creature had planted the premonitions in the history book to cause havoc in the Potters' lives. Upon finding out about the prophecy, the witches would be distracted by that, making them vulnerable to evil for a while. Then evil would find it easier to kill them and then ensuring the prophecy would never be fulfilled.

The Elders had finally found out how the book had come into Gloria's possession, after sending a Whitelighter to the library to investigate. The suspicion was that someone had recommended that book to Gloria. Upon inquiring at the library about that title, the Whitelighter investigator had found out that the book wasn't on the library's database, meaning that someone else had put it there. The book's checkout either had been wiped from the records or hadn't been recorded properly.

Upon looking for clues in the history section, the Whitelighter had sensed that someone had used magic there not long ago, and had guessed that it had been used to make sure Gloria took that history book. A way to force her to take that book would be to use mind-control on her and then perhaps plant a false memory afterwards so she thought she'd just selected that book. As mind-control was a power that witches, demons and warlocks could have, it meant that anyone with that power would be under suspicion.

"I ain't answerin' unless ya admit Terrence knows 'bout the prophecy," said the ghost stubbornly. Since being killed, he'd watched the Potter family's progress from a distance, and had learnt all about the prophecy. He'd started getting suspicious that Terrence knew about the prophecy from things the man had said or done. That was besides the occasional things the man had said to his family that the ghost knew were lies.

Orion looked at Julius, seeking advice on what to say to the spirit. They didn't like to just assume or guess things too much - they knew that Earth court-cases weren't won or lost on guesswork, so stuck to that idea in their work. Julius shook his head at his friend, silently indicating not to answer the ghost's question - whether Terrence knew of the prophecy or not wasn't the ghost's business.

After about a minute of silence, the ghost stood up and glared at the two Elders. "Figured ya'd say as much. I'll let it slide fer now while yer emotions b'tray ya 'bout somethin' else - I know there's somethin' seriously wrong." Julius and Orion had both made the mistake of feeling sad about the Potters' tragic loss.

"JD is the first victim of the most diabolical plan yet to prevent the prophecy being fulfilled," revealed Julius, failing to keep the sadness out of his voice any longer. Although they weren't meant to have favorites in the Potter family, Julius had always liked JD the most. Before JD had joined the Potter family, the Elder had watched the boy and his real family, envying the people who got to spend time with the amazingly lovable, courageous and intelligent child.

"Victim? Ya mean someone's managed ta kill one of the witches?" asked the ghost in obvious shock and anger; not liking what he was hearing. He knew that no one had ever come close to killing any of the Potter family - they all helped each other and made sure that anyone who got hurt was quickly healed.

"Yes, in a way. Unfortunately, Chris's premonition of a Dunne ancestor being killed only came to him as their JD was fading out of existence. Now the child was never born." A tear fell down Julius's cheek - it was so sad that the boy was gone. The world needed more children like JD.

"Does that mean Michelle Dunne wasn' either? That would've stopped Vin bein' born as well!" The ghost couldn't keep the anguish out of his voice.

"Yes," answered Orion, noticing that Julius was very upset after having to tell someone that the youngest adopted Potter son no longer existed. "We did wonder why Vin still exists when his mother doesn't - but we think that perhaps it's because Vin is the Tanner descendant born to a Tanner male, and he was now born to a different witch mother."

The ghost was looking increasingly upset by the conversation, but suddenly had a thought, and his expression blanked while he voiced it. "If JD was never born, wouldn' that mean no one can r'member him now?" It made sense that if someone suddenly ceased to exist, then no one would have any memories of him or her.

"It doesn't happen as suddenly as that. The family's memories of the boy will begin to fade, but for now they still know he used to exist," explained Julius, regaining his composure slightly. Julius was glad he hadn't lost his memories of the boy yet - he hoped that JD would be living again before he did completely forget about him.

Orion pointed a finger at the ghost and made him freeze - although he was still able to hear what the angels said. "If you hadn't kept Terrence here so long, things might not have happened so fast, plus he could be the one going back in time with Chris, instead of the boy having to go with his younger brother. Terrence would be very careful not to alter time too much, but we fear that Chris and Ezra will inadvertently affect the time-line and make things worse."

Nathan spoke from behind the ghost. "I knew you had somethin' to do with this...Michael." Then the unseen Whitelighter walked around the frozen ghost, and looked at the two Elders stood facing his old friend. The shocked expressions on both Elders faces showed they were surprised to see Nathan suddenly there.

"You should be with the Potters, helping them," commented Orion, annoyed by the intrusion.

Nathan looked suddenly unhappy, remembering his falling out with Gloria. "They wanted me to go back with Chris - I had to leave before Gloria made me feel even guiltier, and persuaded me to go."

Orion pointed a finger at the ghost again and unfroze Michael Tanner, the former Whitelighter who had adopted his middle name as his first since becoming an angel. The Elder was sure that Michael had something to say about the whole issue - maybe he would be useful yet, since he was formerly Vin Tanner, one of the Four Corners peacekeepers.

"What're ya talkin' about; go back where?" asked Michael, perplexed and annoyed by the discussion that he didn't understand completely.

"That book gave Chris a premonition of JD being killed by a demon." Then Nathan realized he needed to correct his phrase slightly. "Our original JD - in Four Corners."

"Damn! The premonitions from that book were all meant ta be good - not like that. I swear I had nothin' ta do with that one." Michael was worried that they thought he was responsible for the premonition of the Four Corners JD being murdered - he would never work with evil, even though ghosts could be aligned with either side. "That premonition musta been planted by someone after JD was killed - ta help the witches work out how to restore things ta the way they should be."

"Who would do that?" asked Julius looking perplexed. "There aren't many people who are capable of such magic. If it had been one of you two then surely you'd remember doing it now."

"It doesn't matter who did it," intervened Nathan - what was important was that someone had planted the premonition that had told the witches how peacekeeper JD was killed. With that information, the witches should be able to set things right and bring back their JD. "Michael, are you admitting that you planted those other premonitions in the book?"

Michael stared down at his feet, feeling guilty. "Guess I am. Ya know I'm against the prophecy bein' kept from the witches. We have ta lie ta keep it from 'em an' it ain't right tellin' 'em lies.

"You do realize that you'll be in trouble for interfering, Michael?"

"Course, but I thought I could get away with it. This ain't the time though. Are y'all tryin' ta tell me that a demon that can time-travel could be tryin' ta stop all the prophesied witches from bein' born? Ya know if they ain't all wiped out by it, that the remainder will get the powers of the non-existent members, makin' them even more powerful. Even though yer a Whitelighter, Nate, ya could get the magic powers of any of the witches that cease ta exist."

There was a large library in the heavens where Whitelighters and Elders could look up information on anything - including the prophecy of "The Charmed Seven." Even as a ghost, Michael had still been able to get into the heavens' library and read about the prophecy his son and step-son would play a part in one day. As Michael was restless because he'd never avenged the evil that had killed his Whitelighter form, he was free to wander anywhere he pleased, until he got his revenge. He still had a transportation power so that he could quickly move between places and planes if he wanted. The Elders had no control over restless spirits so just left them alone unless they started endangering innocents.

"Really?" asked Nathan, momentarily distracted by the thought of having witches' powers - that would include writing and saying spells, something Whitelighters couldn't do. "How would the powers be allocated to the survivors if there was more than one left alive?" He hadn't read much about the prophecy, as he was too busy with his Whitelighter duties.

"This ain't the time, Nate," cautioned Michael; not wanting to think about any of the witches being permanently erased from existence. "Sure, we cain't go back in time an' risk changin' ours or the others' present and future; but we could go down b'low an' find who gave the demon his orders an' make sure they cain't give any further ones." As much as Michael hated the prophecy being kept from the prophesied witches, he didn't want the prophecy to not be fulfilled. The world could become a very bad place in the future if the most powerful witches weren't there to protect it.

"We know who gave the demon his orders," explained Orion, "two eighteen-year-old warlock twin-brothers: 'Ivor' and 'Ivan.' A Whitelighter spy found that information out earlier."

Then Julius spoke; "Michael, your plan is a fine one - Terrence and Josiah need to remain with the rest of the family after their sad, but hopefully only temporary, loss. It makes sense that someone else should visit the Underworld while the family is weakened by their grief. If those warlocks are destroyed, then there will be no one to give the demon further orders. Part of the problem will be gone then."

Then Julius turned to Orion and nodded at him. "It is time, Orion." The other Elder nodded back with a smile. Then Julius took two small brown cloth drawstring bags from pockets in his robes. He handed one to Orion's waiting hand, then held his own bag up. "Michael, do you know what this is?" he asked in a friendly tone.

"Memory Dust so's I forget everythin'?" guessed the ghost, nervously backing away.

Orion pulled his bag open and poured glittering, silver powder into the palm of his outstretched hand. "No, it is the opposite of the dust used to make your soul into a ghost. This will make you a Whitelighter again, but will only work for one Earth day."

Michael stepped forward, trusting the Elder's words - the Elders would never lie to one of their own kind. Even if Michael had been working against them, delaying Terrence from getting home, they wouldn't trick him, as he was a former Whitelighter. "You'll make me a Whitelighter again - even if only fer a day?"

"Yes, but only to help ensure that the prophecy will one day be fulfilled. If you make any further attempts to reveal their destiny to the witch sons, we will turn you back into a ghost and send you to the Spirit plane without a transportation power to get back." Julius and Orion looked sternly at the ghost.

"I'll keep an eye on him and try to stop him if he tries anythin'," promised Nathan, not wanting to go to the Underworld alone. Then he walked farther away from Michael, as both Elders sprinkled all the dust onto the ghost.

"That tickles," commented Michael, as he began to feel the change from ghost to Whitelighter. A wide spectrum of colored orbs enveloped him, working their magic to change his powers and make him solid for one day. Finally, the orbs vanished, leaving a very solid-looking Michael Tanner standing there. He ran a hand over himself, delighted to be solid again, even if he wasn't a living person. Michael had always loved being an angel - he always felt so positive inside, and he enjoyed that feeling.

"A word of warning," began Julius seriously, "you mustn't have any contact with your son or any of his family while you're a Whitelighter. Good luck."

Then Orion and Julius orbed back to the heavens, satisfied that Michael wouldn't make any more trouble for Terrence, at least for one day. It was a big mistake bringing Michael back as a ghost so he could watch his son and step-son growing up, and the Elders would have to find a more permanent solution when Michael completed his mission. They didn't really want to send Michael to the Spirit plane permanently as he could be of further use to them.

**To be continued...**


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Inside the Magic Room at the Potter house, Ezra and Chris sat on the floor beside each other, looking at The Book and trying to find out how to vanquish the demon who had wiped out their JD. It was taking a long time to find a demon identical to the one from Chris's premonition of when it had killed the Old West JD.

"He must be nearer the end of The Book," assumed Ezra, as they reached about three quarters of the way through their magical volume. The entries were arranged chronologically by the date they were added, meaning that the last section of their magic book contained pages written by the first generation of Potter witches. The chronological order of pages did mean that it would be hard to find information that was needed unless someone knew how long ago it had been added to The Book. Each section of the magical volume had a first page that included the names of the witches who'd written the information on the subsequent pages, and the time-period when the information had been entered.

None of the family knew that the Time-changer demon had first been vanquished by Brianna Potter many centuries ago; otherwise they would've been able to find the information by turning to Brianna's section of The Book.

Chris and Ezra were both concerned that perhaps the demon wasn't included in their magic book. If the Time-changer demon was a newer type that had developed only recently, then past generations of Potters wouldn't have fought him and so wouldn't have included him in The Book. Then, the brothers would have to devise a way to effectively vanquish the demon themselves - not something they were very experienced at doing. Even Terrence hadn't had much experience at developing vanquishing methods for new evil magical beings. It would mean creating a spell specifically for destroying that creature, and an effective vanquishing potion, made from special ingredients, although it would be difficult to decide which ones would work effectively.

"I hope the demon IS in The Book, Ezra - I'm not sure we have enough time to develop a way to vanquish him before he strikes again," replied Chris. He unknowingly had the same worrying thought as his five-years-younger brother that the demon might not be in the book. He had to help get his baby brother back, or his whole family and he would have lost one of the boys they'd come to love as a son and brother ever since they'd rescued him.

Finally, Ezra turned another page, and found "Time-changer Demon" in large words across the top of the left-hand page. There was a large black and white sketch of the demon, filling most of the page, with how to vanquish him underneath. "Is that him?" he asked Chris, who was looking closely at the sketch.

"YES!" shouted Chris, joyful that they wouldn't have to devise their own way to vanquish their latest foe.

"It says we have to defeat him in a time not our own."

Chris began to read aloud from the page. "To vanquish this demon, you must be in a time not your own but where he also is. When you find him, you must say the entire spell below and then throw the vanquishing potion over him."

"This recipe is absurd!" exclaimed Ezra, as he looked at what ingredients they would need to complete the magic potion. "A time-piece from the time he is in, any herb which grows in the same era, and a drop of blood from anyone he affected in that time, then mix them together and boil the ingredients over a stove until the mixture starts to steam. Leave to cool for about a minute and then the potion will be ready."

"Sounds pretty sensible to me. You know we're going to need to fit in if we're going back to the cowboy days."

Ezra grinned; "It is most opportune that Father and I have completed the spell to transform me into a super-hero. We can adapt it slightly and it will be more than adequate for us." The boy took a piece of paper out of his front right pants' pocket and then unfolded it before handing it to Chris.

Larabee quietly read the spell. "This is very good, Ezra. I figure you wrote most of it, judging by the words." Chris grinned proudly at his brother.

"Indeed I did. I'm glad you're so satisfied with it. Just a few minor adjustments and we'll be turned into cowboys until we reverse the magic. I propose we ensure everything else is prepared first, as there's a slight chance we may be unable to reflect much like witches once we're altered."

When the boys began to prepare for their latest mission, they realized that they couldn't make the vanquishing potion until they had time-traveled. That was one less thing to do before their journey, which meant it gave them more time to prepare everything else. Ezra used carbon paper between two blank pages of a notebook, so that he could make two copies of the vanquishing spell and the potion recipe, while Chris searched for a time-travel spell in their book. After those jobs were done, they would make personalized versions of the character transformation spell and the reversal one to return them to normal.

As with all magical transformations, providing the new identity still had the IQ of a human, no memories, skills or possessions should be lost in the transformation. That meant that both boys would probably still remember they were originally witches, and the boys' copies of spells would hopefully transfer to pockets in their new outfits.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

After the Elders had left Nathan and Michael in the garage, (now both Whitelighters) the two men began to discuss what they would do when they caught up with the twin male warlocks who were indirectly causing trouble for the Potter family.

"Nate, I was thinkin'...," began Michael, pausing to consider how he would phrase what he was about to tell his friend.

"Just spit it out, Michael," snapped Nathan, wondering what Michael wanted to tell him.

"If my step-son really has gone, it means one of the others will have the power to freeze people and objects now." Michael then regretted not reading the rest of the book about the prophecy. It might actually say how it was decided who got which powers if one of the prophesied ones died - or ceased to exist as JD had.

"You're right - I wonder who has JD's freezin' power now." 'Let it be me,' was Nathan's silent request, thinking it would be so amazing to have a power that Whitelighters didn't have unless they were all-powerful Elders or even Senior Whitelighters. When Whitelighters had served in that position for many Earth years and had done plenty of good work, they were promoted to Senior Whitelighters, who had more powers as well as more input in the Elders' plans and decisions.

"Put yer arms up an' try ta freeze me."

"We don't have time for this - we have to get to those two warlocks and stop them doing anythin' else to affect the Potters."

Michael moved toward the door, as if he was going to walk outside the garage. "I'm not goin' with ya if ya won't try freezin' me."

Annoyed by Michael's threat, Nathan bought up both arms reluctantly - he wasn't quite sure if anything triggered the power, like Josiah's telekinesis was triggered usually by anger. Someone more experienced with their powers wouldn't have to feel an emotion to trigger their powers and if they felt too much of the right emotion the power would work automatically. That would risk the exposure of their possession of magic in public places. Nathan pointed both palms at Michael and then the other Whitelighter stood still as a statue.

"Michael?" asked Nathan as he waved a hand in front of the other angel's face. He wasn't sure if Michael was just teasing, or if he really had frozen. "I hope you aren't playin' games with me." How could he be sure if his friend was really frozen?

When Michael remained completely motionless, Nathan decided he needed to test if his friend was teasing him or not. When Michael had been Vin Tanner before he'd died and become a Whitelighter, he'd been notorious for playing tricks on people. So Nathan began to tickle his friend, knowing that in the past, Vin Tanner, the human, had been quite ticklish. Michael didn't flinch and then Nathan knew that he really did have his youngest charge's freezing power. Unfortunately, that meant that JD really was gone, and up to that point, Nathan hadn't fully believed it.

He started to blame himself like all Whitelighters did if they lost a charge - he should've defied the Elders and told the Potter family of the prophecy sooner. If they'd known, then they would've been more prepared for demonic attempts to ruin the prophecy.

Michael then unfroze, as Nathan was new to his witch-power so couldn't keep it working for long. "Nate, it ain't yer fault - you was obeyin' the Elders' rules otherwise they woulda taken ya 'way from the Potters. Ya know it woulda been much worse if ya'd been separated from the others of the prophecy."

"Maybe you're right. At least with this active power I can use it against the warlocks. Let's go there now." Nathan orbed away before Michael could even agree. Then Michael orbed to where he could sense his old friend.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Back in Vin and JD's bedroom, the Potters had used a spell they knew by heart to summon Josiah to them. Unfortunately, Josiah had just finished his shower and only had a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Oh," said Gloria in shock at seeing her half-naked son. "I'm sorry."

Josiah smiled. "It's okay - I know you'd only summon me if it was urgent. What's wrong?"

"Gloria, you explain everything to Josiah, while I find him some clothes," said Terrence. "He's still got some spares here, hasn't he?"

Terrence's wife nodded; "There's some in the closet in Chris's room - they're hanging on the left, away from Chris's. Vin, you go with your father, while I speak to Josiah."

Vin nodded in agreement and left the room with Terrence. The boy was still very upset on the inside by JD's disappearance as they were half-brothers and had always been very fond of each other.

Josiah suddenly noticed that JD wasn't there. The little boy didn't usually go somewhere without Vin, so there must be something wrong. JD certainly wasn't asleep in the room, and Josiah knew that the little boy wouldn't sleep somewhere without his half-brother as he always felt safer with him around.

Gloria closed the door behind Vin and sat on the bed, patting the space beside her. "Sit down, and I'll explain why JD isn't here any longer." She knew that by then, Josiah was wondering why his youngest brother wasn't there.

"Mother, has something bad happened to him?" asked the young man, with a bad feeling growing inside him that the answer would be "yes." It was very unusual for the little boy to be very far from Vin. JD didn't like going somewhere with his other older brothers unless Vin went as well. Vin was on his own with their adoptive father, so for some reason JD had been separated from his half-brother who was like a guardian angel to him.

"He's been erased from our lives," answered Gloria, trying to talk through her renewed crying.

"WHAT?" asked Josiah loudly and angrily; understanding exactly what Gloria meant, and feeling annoyed that someone would do such a thing to such a sweet and innocent young witch. Until Gloria had just explained about JD, Josiah hadn't realized that his mother was so upset, as she'd been hiding her emotions inside. It would take someone with empath power to sense how Gloria felt inside, and Josiah hadn't been blessed with that type of magic. She had learned to pretend she was calm, to make evil think that she was stronger than she really was.

Then Gloria began to explain what had happened to her youngest adopted son, and what Chris had told her about his premonitions. Josiah listened quietly and grew more concerned by the minute; suspicion forming in his mind that there was another reason why someone would want to upset their lives. There were times when it seemed like Nathan was hiding something and attempting to cover it up with lies. Being a police detective, Josiah had learned from experience when someone was lying or simply not disclosing everything they should.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

In the Potters' Magic Room, Chris and Ezra were finally ready to travel back in time. They had in their pockets two spells each: one for changing into cowboys, and one for vanquishing the demon (plus reversal spells for the transformation and the time-travel ones) and the recipe for the Time-changer demon's vanquishing potion. The boys began to chant together; "We wish to visit a time long past, where guns ruled the towns and horses were fast, to the date and place our minds request, carry us straight to the Old West."

Not able to find a time-travel spell in their magic book, Ezra and Chris had written one together. As usual, Chris had preferred to write one that rhymed, so Ezra had helped him word it so it was just like a poem. Chris had remembered the date he'd seen on the newspaper before JD was killed, so had decided they should travel back a day earlier to hopefully give them enough time to stop the demon.

As they said the spell's final line, strong winds whipped around them both, eventually obscuring their view of the Magic Room.

**To be continued...**


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Two days before the wedding between JD Dunne and Casey Wells in Four Corners, the inside of Josiah's church, where they were to be married, was being cleaned and decorated. The men who'd taken on that task were some of JD's fellow peacekeepers that, along with JD, made up the group known as "The Magnificent Seven." JD had promised Chris, the group's leader, that marrying Casey wouldn't prevent him from continuing his peacekeeping work.

As usual, Ezra Standish leaned against the side of the church, occasionally commenting on what the other men were doing and not lifting a hand to help.

"Wouldn't hurt ya ta help some, would it, Ez?" asked Vin Tanner, stopping what he was doing and turning to face the gambler.

"It appears that you don't require my assistance, Mr. Tanner," answered back Ezra, always ready with a retort.

Buck Wilmington turned to face Ezra and threw a wet rag at the man. "Appearances ain't everything, Ezra."

Standish threw the cloth back at Wilmington, before walking out of the church in annoyance at both Buck's words and actions. His mother had always told him; "Appearances are everything, Ezra."

"Way ta go, Buck - now we'll never get his help," complained Vin as he finished scrubbing his section of wall clean.

"We're just about done here anyway," said Nathan, who'd already finished his task of cleaning one side of the church.

Although cleaning a church before a wedding was usually women's work, the men had volunteered to do it to repay JD for all the times he had helped them protect the town. There were many times that he had watched his friends' backs and stopped them from being shot.

Just then, Chris Larabee walked into the church to get his friends' help; "Boys, there's trouble coming." The other men stopped their jobs and turned to face their blond leader and good friend.

"Two men posing as Chris and Ezra are coming to town and we have to arrest them on sight," explained JD Dunne who now stood beside Chris just inside the church doorway.

Ezra Standish spoke from behind JD. "Where on earth did you hear such tidings, Mr. Dunne?"

"I just got these wanted posters of them, hand-delivered from a few towns over," replied JD, holding up the wanted posters with pictures of men who looked exactly like Chris and Ezra. He managed not to smile – everyone believed that the posters he had magically created to implicate the magically disguised witches were real.

"They were hand-delivered because that town knew the men were heading here, and they're very dangerous so we needed to be warned urgently," explained Chris, knowing that it wasn't usual for only a few wanted posters to be delivered by hand.

"A most intriguing turn of events," stated Ezra. "We either have twin-brothers of whom we've always been ignorant, or two men have, very professionally, duplicated our appearances. Personally, I'd choose the second explanation."

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Back in the present day, Nathan and Michael had orbed to the Underworld and were looking for the warlocks who were really to blame for the Potters' son, JD, being wiped out of their lives.

Nathan was unhappy about being in the Underworld without preparing for it. "Michael, I really think we shoulda made plans b'fore we came lookin' for them - who knows what they might do when they see us." Nathan wasn't trying to hide his proper accent now that he wasn't among the Potters, who were the only ones from whom he had to hide his origins.

"Don't worry, Nate," said Michael in a soft reassuring voice. "It'll work out jus' fine."

"I hope Vin grows up with your confidence - that's if he ever grows up. I hope we're doin' the right thing bein' down here."

"Relax, Nate - I got it all worked out. An' don't ferget ya got yer freezin' power."

"I'm only borrowin' it 'til we get JD back. I don't feel good about usin' somethin' I ain't even asked permission to borrow."

The two Whitelighters' path was then blocked by a large black demon with three horns: one either side of his head and one on top. "You don't belong here - leave now," he growled out.

"We don't really look like this," began Michael, "we've been usin' our glamour ta fool some witches." Michael didn't attempt to disguise his accent, as he knew that regional accents were just as common in the Underworld as they were on the Earth plane, as the Underworld was also a very large place.

"Do you expect me to believe that without any proof?"

Nathan sighed – demons clearly weren't all as stupid as he thought they were. The Whitelighter brought up his arms, pointed his palms toward the demon and quickly froze him before he could sound an alarm. Then the two Whitelighters used their orbing powers to transport them past the demon that was still blocking their path. Nathan heard Michael muttering about the guard soon unfreezing and raising the alarm, but there was no other option. Perhaps the Whitelighters could vanquish the warlocks before they were caught.

Once the Whitelighters had orbed a safe distance past the demon, Michael decided he needed to talk to Nathan about the big risk they were taking. "We cain't possibly get finished down here b'fore he unfreezes. He'll raise an alert an' we'll never reach the warlocks b'fore we get caught."

"Sometimes we have to take big risks, Michael. This is a big place and it'll take them ages to track us down. We need to quickly get to the warlocks now, so I'll write a spell to get us to them faster." Nathan smiled - now that he was half witch, he had gained the ability to write spells that would work. Not just any words would make something magical happen - they had to be carefully chosen, and only witches could choose the right word combinations for spells.

"That's a brilliant idea, Nate." Michael gently slapped his friend on the back in praise of his good thinking.

Nathan started off the spell by using the two warlocks' names. "With Ivor and Ivan...we need to be...so take us there...Michael and me." Writing spells on the spot was very hard Nathan realized, as he finished composing the spell. He hoped it would work despite how crude it sounded to him.

Bright white light surrounded Michael and Nathan. It only stayed about ten seconds before it vanished, and the two angels were then standing behind two identical warlocks in a cave that was well lit by wall torches.

"Are you two, 'Ivan' and 'Ivor'?" asked Nathan, feeling the need to check the spell had worked.

Both warlocks turned as one and were surprised to see two men standing there. Nathan and Michael both always dressed like still living humans, so no one could tell they weren't on first inspection. "Witches!" said the warlocks in unison, clearly shocked that any witches had found them. Humans without powers wouldn't have appeared in the cave, as it was only accessible by magical means of transportation. The warlocks would've sensed if the men were demons or warlocks, so just assumed that the men must be witches.

"Not quite," said Nathan, as he brought up his arms and froze the room except for himself and Michael. "Now what?" he asked his friend. Nathan had rapidly learnt how to control his freezing power, although he still couldn't keep anything frozen for long. Hopefully, the more he used his new magic power, the longer the effects would last.

Michael had been looking around the cave and had found something very interesting, which was so big, that he was surprised they hadn't seen it straight away. "Nate, look at the wall b'hind you."

As he turned and faced the wall, Nathan gasped in surprise. The whole wall was like a TV screen, and on it, he saw six of the Four Corners peacekeepers, waiting in a clearing in some woods. There was no sound, so the angels couldn't hear what the gunslingers were saying.

"Wow! That demon musta taken a camera with him," commented Nathan, impressed by such technology being used by the Underworld.

"The Time-changer demon has a special camera built into his neck that cannot be detected," said the deep masculine voice of one of the warlocks, having come unfrozen already. "It can magically send moving images from any time back to this screen."

"Ya can see everything he does?" asked Michael, amazed that their enemies could watch the demon in Four Corners. If the warlocks were going to share information, then he and Nathan might as well ask them some questions.

"Yes; so far his most glorious moment was when he stabbed the original JD Dunne," revealed the other warlock in a very similar voice to his brother. He was so confident that their plan would succeed, that he was happy to reveal the details of it to the witches. "Since then he's traveled back to intercept the two Potter witches. The demon will soon kill his next victim, and those two witches will be powerless to stop him."

Both warlocks smiled at their impending further victory against the witches - everything was going according to plan.

A thought suddenly struck Michael upon hearing the warlock mention the death of the gunslinger, JD Dunne. How come the angel didn't remember finding out that his friend JD had been killed back when he was alive? Maybe there was a time-delay since the change in the time-line, like the one that meant the witches could still remember the witch JD after he'd never been born. Perhaps there would come a time when Michael and Nathan would remember when the first JD Dunne had been killed before his wedding day; but hopefully time would be put right before then.

"I see there are only six peacekeepers, so I take it he looks like the seventh," said Nathan, who was suddenly feeling very helpless.

"Yes, he has glamoured into the youngest one - he is now a copy of the one who won't live to see his wedding day," answered one of the warlocks. The warlocks still hadn't said which of them Ivan was and which Ivor was.

Michael had another idea then. What if the demon going back a second time to before Old West JD had been killed meant that he had accidentally stopped himself from killing the peacekeeper now? That could be why the Whitelighter still couldn't remember the day in the Old West when he'd found out that his younger friend had been murdered. Something could've been changed in time after the demon had re-visited before JD's wedding, meaning that he wouldn't be able to kill JD a second time. The two Whitelighters, being in the Underworld, couldn't sense if the witch JD had been restored to life above ground.

"The peacekeepers can't tell the difference between the two JDs," said the other warlock with glee and a huge grin plastered on his face.

"You have a brilliant plan that surely won't fail. Since yer goin' ta succeed in yer plan and bring about the eventual extinction of all us witches, will ya at least tell us yer names?" requested Michael, knowing which buttons to push when dealing with evil. Michael was keeping up the pretense that he and Nathan were witches so that the warlocks wouldn't call in a Darklighter to kill the two Whitelighters with poisonous arrows that could only harm their kind. If a Darklighter succeeded to shoot the deadly poison into them, it would weaken them both until they eventually died - then they'd never be able to get rid of the warlocks.

"Of course; I'm Ivan and he's Ivor. You can tell us apart by our different colored eyes and our slightly different voices." He loved it when the enemy admitted that his plans were brilliant and couldn't be foiled. "My eye color was magically changed when I was a baby from dark-green to gray-blue so we were easier to tell apart."

"I'm bored with all this waiting - it's taking far too long to destroy them all," complained Ivor. "How about we kill both Larabees AND Standishes when the two witches get there?"

"A fine idea, brother. It will certainly speed things up if we kill two or more at a time." Ivan began to laugh. It was a deep, throaty laugh that he emitted and he was soon joined by his brother.

While both warlocks were busy, Michael decided that then was the perfect time for the next part of his plan. He closed his eyes and began chanting in Latin.

"Michael? What are you doin'?" asked Nathan, feeling startled and slightly worried by his old friend's actions.

The other Whitelighter ignored him and continued his chanting until he reached the end of the incantation. Then Michael startled his friend by starting to turn invisible.

A large mass of yellow orbs appeared in the room and then quickly cleared to reveal, much to Nathan's surprise, the witch Chris Larabee.

Now completely invisible, Michael smiled – his plan had at least partly worked. Unfortunately, the incantation hadn't successfully summoned both witches from the past to save them from being caught and imprisoned by the Four Corners' peacekeepers.

"Where am I? How did I get here?" asked Chris, clearly taken aback by being suddenly moved from where he had been.

"It doesn't matter - you were about to walk into an ambush set by the demon," explained Nathan hurriedly.

"What? You mean the demon traveled back to intercept us?" The blond was shocked by the news that the demon or his masters were smart enough to work out that the witches would travel back to before peacekeeper JD was killed to stop the demon. Then Chris noticed the large screen that currently showed the witches' ancestors stood not far from where he'd been with Ezra. As he'd had previous experience with demons who could send images of their location to screens in the Underworld, Chris knew that the Time-changer demon must be sending the images that he saw through his own eyes.

"Do you really think that we were so stupid that we wouldn't work out how you could foil our plans?" asked Ivan, annoyed that one of the prophesied witches had been summoned there. It meant that the Larabee witch couldn't be imprisoned to prevent him from interfering further with the warlocks' plan. "We're always one step ahead of you and your family, witch." Ivan began to laugh loudly at the foolish witch.

Ivor looked at his brother, worried that their plan could still be foiled because of the two witches showing up there unexpectedly. The two warlocks still assumed that the first two intruders there were witches.

"The half-demon witch is still in danger," reminded Ivan, sounding very pleased by his words. "Keep watching the screen." He had a magical link with his twin-brother that allowed him to sense Ivor's emotions, so he could sense that his brother was worried. By reminding the two witch intruders that the half-demon witch was still in danger, he was also reassuring his brother that they still had a chance for their plan to succeed. He was glad to see a crooked grin appear on Ivor's face, meaning that his reassuring words had worked.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

After arriving in the Old West and checking there would be no witnesses, Chris and Ezra had stood together and said the transformation spell. When it worked, they would fit in better and not attract any unwanted attention from the locals. The spell went: "Assist me now to metamorphose, into a character Four Corners knows, to the western savior inscribed on the paper."

Both boys had written the exact names of their ancestors below their copies of the transformation spell, so the spell would then turn them into copies of their ancestors. Ezra somehow knew that his ancestor was really called, "Ezra Patrick Standish," although it wasn't written in the history book. It was well known that transformation spells would only work to transform the users into copies, meaning the real ancestors wouldn't be displaced from their time by the witches.

Then both boys had both changed into copies of their ancestors and had started walking toward the town. As they'd appeared a safe distance away, there were likely to be no town-dwelling witnesses to their sudden appearance.

Suddenly, from beside Ezra, Chris gasped. Ezra turned to his side to see his brother vanishing before his eyes. "Chris? Where are you going?"

Larabee completely vanished, never having a chance to answer Ezra.

"Come back!" shouted Ezra, not wanting to be left alone in the Old West. "I can't do this alone." Normally, Ezra would feel confident about single-handedly vanquishing any evil being, but this mission was in a place he wasn't at all familiar with, and he was worried about accidentally changing an element of the past that could prevent him from ever existing in the modern world. With Chris to help him, he'd be less likely to make a critical error in the Old West.

"He can't hear you," taunted a triumphant, malicious voice, as the Time-changer demon appeared in front of Ezra. Then he grabbed Ezra's hand and disappeared, having just received a telepathically sent order from one of his masters.

**To be continued...**


	10. Chapter 9

**Warning: A death (without any details) is mentioned later in this chapter, but as it's one of the AU's seven major characters, they will never be killed off permanently and will be alive again before the end of this story. Minor swearword used in this chapter later.**

**Chapter 9**

Back at the Potter house, Gloria had decided to run a bath for Vin in an attempt to take his mind off his missing brother. While Gloria prepared the bath, Vin stayed in his room watching cartoons on his small TV. Events on the screen he normally found funny, weren't anymore - he usually watched the cartoons with JD, and without the younger boy to laugh with him, Vin didn't find anything funny. JD had such an infectious laugh, and hearing it always made Vin laugh even more. As Vin was a half-Whitelighter, he found it hard to express outwardly negative emotions, so he remained calm on the outside while he watched TV.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Having seen the chance to talk to his father alone, Josiah had asked Terrence to go with him to the Magic Room for a private talk. Terrence had agreed and followed his son there. Once inside the room, Josiah closed the door so Vin and Gloria wouldn't hear their discussion.

Seeing his son close the door, Terrence knew that Josiah wanted to talk about something very serious. "Josiah, son? Is there something the matter - besides the loss of our youngest?"

"Dad," began Josiah, surprising Terrence, as he'd only ever called him 'Father' before. "I think there's more to this evil plot than just destroying the powerful Potter witches' sons."

"Why would there need to be more reason behind an evil plot than that, Son?" asked Terrence, seeming shocked by Josiah's theory.

'Stop acting like you don't know what I'm talking about,' thought Josiah, hating when his father kept secrets from him. 'I can always tell when Whitelighters or half-Whitelighters are trying to cover something up - you're all terrible liars.'

All of a sudden, Terrence felt bad about keeping the prophecy a secret from his oldest adopted son - in essence, he was lying to Josiah by not telling him the truth about his and his brothers' special destiny. Terrence had to tell his oldest son straight away, as though the huge secret would kill the adult half-Whitelighter witch if he didn't instantly divulge it to at least his first adopted son. He hadn't heard Josiah's thoughts, so wasn't at that moment able to link his eldest son's thoughts to his own strong urge to disclose what he'd kept secret for so long.

"You're right, Son - there is more to it. You and your brothers have been prophesied to eventually become the most powerful group of witches the world has ever seen. No other witches except Gloria and me know of the prophecy, but unfortunately, the Underworld does and has made many attempts to kill you and your brothers to stop the prophecy being fulfilled. Nathan is included in the prophecy as your Whitelighter, and, when complete, your group will be called 'The Charmed Seven.' Your magical destiny was created in the period that Chris has been receiving premonitions of from that history book. Your ancestors back then were secretly given inactive magic powers that would grow stronger and more active in each generation of their descendants until you were all born. The magic of the destiny inside your parents made them give you all the same names as those ancestors.

"There is a sixth male witch who will one day join the group. Only the Elders and a few Whitelighters know his identity. I believe that he will be forced to join your group when his own life is in danger, like when your brothers had to be rescued by us. All of those rescues were from evils that were sent after the boys to stop the prophecy being fulfilled one day. I don't think the Underworld was aware of the prophecy when you were in danger, and you were just in danger because of the evil people who ran that school.

"We only learnt of the prophecy after we adopted Vin and JD. Before that we only knew that we were rescuing children, magical or otherwise, as we were asked if we would as we couldn't have children of our own." Terrence snapped his mouth shut in horror - he'd just revealed to Josiah what the Elders had told him he mustn't, and he had no idea why he'd told his oldest son.

Josiah's mouth opened wide in shock - his father had just told him a huge secret that he suspected wasn't supposed to be revealed to him until the prophecy could be fulfilled. "Why did you just tell me all that?" Josiah was confused about why Terrence had just revealed the secret to him that he'd kept so well up to that point.

"I don't know - can you forget I told you? The Elders will punish me if they find out."

Josiah smiled at his father. "I can't forget, but I promise I won't tell anyone. I can understand that my brothers are too young to understand about their special destiny yet. I'm sure the Elders wouldn't punish you, Dad - you realized you had to tell me because of what's happened."

"I didn't though - I wasn't going to tell you at all," said Terrence, sounding very shocked by the whole incident. "I can't understand what made me confess."

Suddenly a horrible thought came into Josiah's head; 'If someone killed Ezra, then perhaps I got his powers - including mind-control. Maybe a witch's powers never die with the witch and are passed on to another witch instead. My thoughts about Father keeping something from me must've ordered him to tell me about the prophecy without him realizing.' Josiah knew that when Ezra commanded someone through his mind, the victim never heard the instructions in their head so didn't know they had been ordered to do something by the boy.

"Son? I can hear your thoughts all of a sudden - I was never able to before. I hate to admit it, but your theory of how you made me confess makes perfect sense. But it means..." Terrence hung his head.

"NO! It can't be true that someone's killed Ezra as well!" fumed Josiah angrily. The room began to shake, triggered by the anger Josiah felt at the thought that someone had murdered, or wiped from existence, his middle brother. "When I get my hands on the demon responsible..."

Terrence looked up, with surprise clear on his face. "You've never made a room shake before - maybe it's Ezra's demonic powers mixed with your witch powers causing it. His powers combined with yours could be useful in helping to bring him and JD back." He had to try to remain positive, despite it being quite clear now that he'd lost two sons. "One thing you should know is that only special witches pass their powers on when they die. Usually, witches take all their powers with them to the Spirit Plane. Remember that when great-grandmother visits as a ghost, she still has all her powers?"

Josiah nodded, having calmed down slightly. "When you say 'special witches' do you mean like the ones who have a special destiny?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I meant." Terrence smiled at his son, silently praising him for his correct guess. "If anyone within the prophesied 'Charmed Seven' dies, their powers will be passed to a random surviving member. If only one member survived, he would have all the powers of the others - even Whitelighter and demonic powers, as the prophecy said that there would be demon and Whitelighter powers within the group. You should now have all of Ezra's powers no matter if they are witch or demon ones."

"If Ezra has really gone, it means Chris is alone in the Old West now - I have to go back and help him. With mine and Ezra's active powers I can help him a lot." Josiah wished he had a time-travel spell to use.

Suddenly the words of a time-travel spell started to be said in Terrence's head - in Ezra's voice. Terrence grabbed the pen and notebook that were lying forgotten on the floor and began to write quickly as Ezra told him the spell's words. No sign had been left of the spell Chris and Ezra had used to go back in time and their magic book was closed. Before Ezra had started to speak, they didn't have a time-travel spell for Josiah to use. 'I wish to visit a time long past, where guns ruled the towns and horses were fast, take me to the date of my request, and carry me straight to the Old West.' Then Ezra told Terrence which date to write below the spell and then the father did so.

"Father, are you writing a time-travel spell? I still can't hear your thoughts." The son noticed his father was busily writing something and hoped it was relevant to their conversation. As Josiah didn't know how to make Ezra's mind-reading power work for him, he couldn't read his father's mind to find out what the man was writing.

"I can hear Ezra's voice in my head telling me the spell he must've used to travel back!" exclaimed Terrence, glad to hear his son's voice, even if was from beyond the grave. "Perhaps, Ezra kept his telepathy power which is why you can't read my mind but can control it. I can read yours though, because I have my own telepathy power that suddenly turned on just now without my telling it to." Terrence's telepathy sometimes worked when it sensed it was needed, even if Terrence didn't realize the need for it. "Maybe getting some of Ezra's powers stopped your mind always being closed to me - you know I've never been able to read your thoughts at all before."

"Maybe he's not really dead?" suggested Josiah hopefully. If his brother was still alive, that would mean the demon hadn't managed to kill him after all - but it wouldn't explain why Josiah suddenly had Ezra's powers.

"I think he's sending me the message from the plane he's now on - his power must be growing so he has multi-plane telepathy now. Here, the spell's all written, but don't say it until you're ready to go." Terrence tore the page from the notebook and handed it to his oldest son.

"Thanks, Dad. I think I'll try Ezra's glamour so I look like my ancestor from this book." Josiah picked up the library book that Chris had told him all about. He flicked through the pages until he found his ancestor. "Hard to see any resemblance between us."

"You don't have to look much like someone to be related to them, Son."

"Here goes!" Josiah closed his eyes and pictured his ancestor. Then he felt himself changing.

"It worked!" shouted Terrence triumphantly.

Josiah re-opened his eyes and saw his reflection in the nearby mirror. "That's scary! I better find out how to vanquish the demon before I travel back."

"Ezra's just told me the spell and recipe. Here it is." Terrence handed another piece of paper to his son; having just written all the vanquishing details down while Josiah had been changing. It was certainly handy that his second deceased son could still communicate with him.

"Thanks, Dad. Thank you, Ezra." Josiah said the 'Thank you' to Ezra softly, as he looked up at the sky where he reckoned his brother would now be in Heaven. Despite being a half-demon, Ezra had always worked on the side of good, meaning he had earned a place in Heaven for when he died. Josiah knew all about Ezra's secret solo missions against evil - the oldest brother kept a closer eye on him than Ezra realized.

"Give me a hug before you go, Son. I'm scared I might never see you again after what happened to Ezra." Terrence was then hugged tightly by the Old West adult version of Josiah. It didn't feel strange to Terrence, as he knew the older man was really his son magically disguised.

Then Josiah stepped back and read the time-travel spell out loud.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Meanwhile, in the Underworld, Nathan, Chris and Michael, who was still invisible, had watched on the screen as the demon grabbed Ezra and vanished with the boy. Then the screen had gone blank to spare them from witnessing Ezra's fate. There was nothing anyone could do, so they just hoped the boy would be able to be brought back somehow. After both warlocks began to laugh loudly, Nathan froze them again, annoyed by their success so far.

Chris looked at Nathan, surprised that the Whitelighter was able to freeze people as he'd never shown he had that power before. "Nathan, you never froze anyone before!"

Realizing he had just revealed he had a freezing power, Nathan had to think fast so he didn't have to tell Chris that he had JD's power because of the prophecy that had to be kept from the witch brothers. "It's a Whitelighter power I'm only allowed to use if I really need to. I don't normally need to use it because Terrence is usually there to use his freezing power instead."

"That makes sense," admitted Chris, who was disappointed that there wasn't a more interesting explanation behind the Whitelighter suddenly revealing he could freeze people.

"Chris, will you help me vanquish these two?" requested Nathan. "Without his masters, the demon won't receive any further orders. He will be far weaker then and won't be clever enough on his own to predict anyone's next move."

"Okay, I'm not too bad at writing vanquishing spells on the spot, but it might not work without a potion as well." Chris fell silent, and quickly worked out a spell in his head. Then he recited it. "Evil warlocks, Ivan and Ivor, be gone from here, and plague us no more."

Thick black smoke appeared around the warlocks before disappearing and taking the twin evil beings with it.

Nathan grinned at his blond charge. "I'd say that worked pretty well, Chris. Great work." It always helped for a Whitelighter to compliment their charges on a job well done.

The blond witch grinned. Then he wondered why Nathan had been sent to the Underworld alone. It always helped to have backup in dangerous places - especially in the Underworld that was full of enemies of witches and Whitelighters. "Nathan, did the Elders REALLY send you here without anyone to watch your back?"

"They didn't have anyone available at such short notice," answered Nathan, realizing he couldn't let the blond know that his adopted brother's real father was there but invisible. Vin's father Michael was no longer a Whitelighter to the Potters' and Vin's knowledge. As far as they knew, the angel had been killed by a Darklighter when Vin's mom was still pregnant with Vin. If anyone found out that Michael was a Whitelighter again, they'd suspect there was some really good reason why and perhaps discover the prophecy that wasn't allowed to be revealed to any witches, especially the ones named in the prophecy.

Michael Tanner remained invisible and quiet, observing how well things were going for the side of good in the Underworld. There was the worry that the Elders would know he had summoned one of the witches whom he was forbidden to go near, but remaining undetected by the witch should stop the Elders punishing him. They didn't want Michael near any of the prophesied witches because they didn't want him to reveal the prophecy to them, but remaining undetected meant that he wouldn't give away anything to Chris.

"I can't believe the Elders sent you here alone, Nate. They put you in danger by doing that. I won't let you stay here another minute on your own. Go back to the house and stay with Mom and Dad."

Nathan was about to protest, when he spotted something on the screen that didn't seem right. The Whitelighter walked over to the screen, looking intently at the peacekeepers that stood, looking like they were talking to the screen, outside the Old West town's saloon. "Now, there's something unexpected." Nathan had a large grin on his face.

"Do you mean the scar that shouldn't be on THEIR Josiah's face until years after THEIR JD's wedding?" asked Chris, his memory for detail coming in handy. Chris had always had a great memory and he guessed that the Elders had given him it so he could remember details of his premonitions to help him save and protect innocents better.

"Exactly. Looks like someone magical might've used a transformation spell, but copied the picture of Josiah from the library book."

Chris walked closer to the screen to examine the copy of the Old West Josiah closer. "It's got to be either Dad or OUR Josiah. Mom would never let Vin travel back in time, and she'd stay home to look after him. I better join them to help vanquish the Time-changer demon."

"Okay, close your eyes and I'll send you back with an incantation," agreed Nathan, planning that as soon as Chris's eyes were closed, Michael could chant the reverse incantation to send Chris back, without the blond witch realizing it wasn't Nathan saying it.

Chris stood still and closed his eyes, wondering why he needed to close his eyes for Nathan to send him back to the Old West. He knew that an incantation was like a spell, but entirely in Latin and usually more lengthy than a witch's spell.

When Chris's eyes were closed, Michael quietly said the incantation to send the witch back to the past, to the same time that the Time-changer demon was currently in.

Yellow orbs appeared all around Chris and took him to the same date where the magical clone of the Old West Josiah was.

"There they are!" growled out a large two-horned black demon as he and two other large black demons blinked into the cave. "Stay right where you are, Witches." Somehow, they must've sensed that Michael was there, despite the Whitelighter still being invisible. They couldn't have been including Chris in their order, as he had already completely disappeared from the cave.

"Guess that demon finally unfroze and raised the alarm," spoke Michael from where he invisibly stood.

Then, to avoid being caught by the demons and having accomplished what they'd traveled to the Underworld to achieve, Nathan and Michael orbed out of the Underworld.

**To be continued...**


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

After he'd taken care of the half-demon witch, Ezra, the Time-changer demon, still disguised as the Old West town sheriff, JD Dunne, blinked back to the same spot in the Old West that he'd left. None of the peacekeepers, the 'Magnificent Seven', had missed him as he blinked back to just seconds after he'd blinked away to kill the present-day half-demon witch.

Realizing that he no longer needed to ambush the time-traveling witches, as the present-day witch Chris Larabee had disappeared, and he'd killed the half-demon witch, Ezra, the Time-changer demon used his mind-control power to make the Old West peacekeepers head back to town.

The peacekeepers were standing around chatting when the demon's mind-control power suddenly took effect.

"We're wasting our time here," stated Wilmington. "No-one's watching the town while we're out here, y' know." He began to shuffle his feet about; anxious to get back and make sure that Four Corners wasn't being overrun by criminals while there was no one to protect it.

"I heartily concur, Mr. Wilmington," agreed Ezra. "There are more important tasks we should be performing."

"Let's get back to town, boys," decided Chris, glaring at JD for wasting their time.

"Sorry, Chris," apologized the demon disguised as JD. "Buck, let's go to the saloon."

"Best idea you've had all day, Kid," said Buck, walking to his horse that was waiting patiently nearby.

Then, the men quickly mounted their horses and rode back to town.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

After the peacekeepers had arrived back in town and separated, the witch Josiah appeared in a back-alley in Four Corners. It was as though the time-travel spell knew to transport the user to a secluded place where they wouldn't risk exposing their magic to non-magical humans. Then the witch walked toward the church where he somehow knew his ancestor would be. Once there, he had no choice but to tie the real peacekeeper Josiah up with some rope that he conjured up with a spell, promising that it was only being done for the greater good. The real peacekeeper Josiah didn't seem too surprised to see a man who looked exactly the same as him except for the clothes and very noticeable scar on his face. The ex-preacher was open to almost anything being possible, due to his belief in miracles and strange phenomena. He'd seen some strange things in his time that had taught him there were more strange things around than people knew about.

Josiah didn't know that being in the same time as his ancestor had given him the magic power to sense where his peacekeeper ancestor was. All the prophesied witches would magically sense their peacekeeper ancestors if they were in the same time as them.

Years before peacekeeper JD's wedding, a very powerful female witch had blessed all seven of the peacekeepers with a small amount of magic (although inactive for those seven) and created the prophecy of "The Charmed Seven." The peacekeepers didn't learn of the prophecy until they died and went to Heaven. As Nathan Jackson became a Whitelighter and was therefore allowed to spend a lot of time on Earth, his family's future generations didn't inherit his magic. Instead, all of the magic for his family line went to him when he became a Whitelighter.

Then Josiah the witch left the church, having swapped clothes with his ancestor after realizing that it would look suspicious if the Old West Josiah suddenly had different clothes on. Fortunately, he didn't notice that his ancestor was missing a facial scar, or he'd have glamoured to replicate the peacekeeper more closely. Then he wouldn't have given away to Chris and Nathan in the Underworld that he wasn't the real peacekeeper Sanchez.

"Mr. Sanchez," greeted a southern voice that Josiah didn't recognize. "By gracing this thoroughfare with your presence, I would postulate that your labors have been completed for the time being."

Josiah couldn't stop the chuckle from escaping him, as he faced the man he now knew was "Ezra Standish." Using long words in speech and using more words than necessary must be a family trait passed down through the Standish line.

Standish turned away, disgusted that his older friend was laughing at him. It wasn't something Sanchez usually did unless it was something Ezra or the others found amusing as well. Then Ezra walked to the saloon to join the other peacekeepers. He was trying to ignore the loud laughter coming from his older friend behind him.

Composing himself, Josiah realized that he'd better make a start on the vanquishing potion if he was to have a chance at vanquishing the demon. If he didn't do it soon, the demon might wipe him out as well. Then there would only be Chris left there to vanquish the demon (he had no idea that Chris was at that moment in the Underworld.) Taking a copy of the potion ingredients out of his pocket, Josiah felt glad that Ezra had telepathically told his father how to vanquish the demon as well as giving him a time-travel spell.

After briefly wondering where his brother Chris was, Josiah began to look around for the ingredients he needed. The witch was feeling quite confident that he would be able to complete the potion quite quickly with his prior knowledge of the Old West that he'd learnt from library books.

Josiah had loved reading ever since he'd started reading at the library of the monk-run boarding school where his cruel and widowed father had sent him. When Josiah was a teenager, the Potters, his adoptive parents, had enrolled him in the local high school where'd he'd learnt some basic information about the Old West in American History. Desiring to learn more details of the interesting US time-period, Josiah had started researching it in the local library.

Josiah couldn't help feeling thirsty upon walking near the building that Ezra had disappeared into for a drink. Perhaps he would find out where Chris was while he was in the building. The sign above the batwing doors said "Saloon." Then he was met by the Old West Buck and JD who were just exiting the building.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Upon arriving outside of Four Corners, Chris the witch was relieved to find that there were no witnesses to his sudden appearance. He had quickly figured out that the demon must have surprised Ezra while the boy was alone and distracted by Chris's disappearance. He hated to think what the demon had done to his younger brother - demons were very brutal creatures. Fortunately, the warlocks had made their screen go blank so no-one had witnessed what happened to the half-demon witch after the Time-changer demon captured him.

Larabee headed toward town, dressed in a cowboy outfit he'd magically created. That way he didn't look like his ancestor so wouldn't raise any suspicions with his arrival in town.

As he walked into a fairly quiet town street, he was greeted by a brown-haired man he'd never seen before. The man looked about fifty years old.

"Hey, Son," the man greeted in a warm tone, "haven't seen you around here before."

Chris smiled. "That's 'cause I'm new to these parts," he said in what he hoped sounded like the man's accent.

"The name's James, James Cheshire. Where you from, Son?" It wasn't often that teenage boys were alone in a town where guns were allowed in the open, and he hoped the boy wasn't on the run from the law.

Chris wondered where he should say he was from as he had no idea where 'James' was from, so couldn't say his town. "I'm sorry, Sir, but I have to be going. It was good to meet you." Walking quickly away, Chris hoped James wouldn't get suspicious when he hadn't answered the innocent question.

James shook his head. "Kids these days - they ain't got no manners." He hoped that his daughter would find a husband who was more refined than the blond had seemed.

Chris heard the muttered remark and smiled - if the man thought that, he couldn't be suspicious of his hurried exit. Then Chris headed for the building with the sign "Saloon," hoping he might be able to find out where his brother Josiah was.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Josiah had kept up the pretense that he was friends with the peacekeepers Buck and JD, and had entered the saloon with them. He'd sat at a table with the two and had gradually learned that the two men got along like best friends, despite that Buck was more than a few years older than JD. Unfortunately, to keep in character he had to drink a few strong alcoholic drinks, luckily not too strong for his taste. He hoped the alcohol in his system wouldn't affect his powers like it sometimes did.

When an elegantly dressed young woman with long and straight dark-brown hair had exited the saloon, Buck had gone after her, shouting back that he'd see both his friends later. JD had asked Josiah the time, and the disguised witch had then found out the time from the ancient time-piece he had inside his jacket.

Josiah remembered then that the time-piece was one of the things needed for the vanquishing potion, and had left the saloon upon remembering that his brothers' lives were still at stake, and he'd better get back to making the vanquishing potion. Time was ticking away, and it would be too easy to be so caught up with the events of the Old West that he'd forget why he was really there.

Another spot of luck occurred when Josiah saw the sign on the second floor of a building for the local healer. He remembered reading that healers and doctors of that time frequently made herbal remedies for the sick. Hopefully, Josiah would find an herb from that time there - another of the vanquishing potion ingredients.

The Time-changer demon, disguised as JD Dunne, followed a fair distance behind Sanchez. The oldest peacekeeper was his next intended victim. The demon had just injured the original Ezra Standish, preferring to save the time it took to kill someone for an ancestor whose descendant was still actually living. He knew how powerful and experienced with magic Josiah was, so was going after his ancestor for an easy way to wipe out the witch descendant.

As the demon followed behind Josiah Sanchez, he couldn't sense that it was really the witch Josiah glamoured into his Old West ancestor, so was unaware that he would more than meet his match if he tangled with that Sanchez. As he'd killed two of the telekinetic's brothers, it meant that Josiah would be very angry if faced with the demon, and his extreme anger mixed with his newly acquired demonic powers would make his telekinesis more harmful than usual.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

After the half-demon witch Ezra had been killed, he'd been magically transported to the Heavens, where he was warmly welcomed by a group of male and female Whitelighters of varying ages. He'd been told where to go next and had continued forward alone.

A Whitelighter girl of about fourteen, with long straight blonde hair that hung down her back, and wearing a long white dress with matching shoulder straps, approached the boy. Then she gently wrapped her arms around him. "Welcome, Ezra," she said in a soft, Irish voice, after stepping back from the boy.

"Is this Heaven?" asked the boy nervously, not speaking too loud because he didn't want to disturb the serenity of the white emptiness he was in - he couldn't see much except for white space everywhere.

From the first time Gloria Potter had shown Ezra how pleasant it felt to be embraced, he had always enjoyed the warm feeling it bought to him when he was hugged. He was hoping he might receive further embraces from the Whitelighter girl, as he really needed comforting after what had recently happened to him.

After having such a terrifying experience at the hands of the Time-changer demon, Ezra was glad it was finally over although he was sad at the prospect of not seeing his family until they joined him after they died. Knowing that there were no witches in the past to fix it then, he felt that there was no hope of them ever changing events so that he was bought back to life.

Ezra was bought out of his thoughts by the girl. "Yes, this is part of Heaven, but this place is where Whitelighters and Elders work - not quite where you were expecting to arrive."

A man with short blond hair and a short thin beard, who looked to be in either his thirties or forties, and wearing long white robes, stepped toward the girl and boy. "Katherine, you must watch your words more carefully." The man also had an Irish accent, meaning he might be related to the young Whitelighter.

"Sorry, Father - it is difficult to know what is permissible for us to say to the boy, as there is so much that is not allowed to be spoken," explained Katherine politely. "Ezra, you are here because we believe that there is still hope for your family's future. You must accompany us and then you shall see whom you need to help. As you are the one with the telepathic power, you will be able to use it to help them from here."

The group of Whitelighters turned and walked away, so Ezra followed after them, knowing he could trust the Whitelighters who were only ever aligned with the side of good and would never cause him any harm.

**To be continued...**


	12. Chapter 11

**Thanks to Kas for her reviews.**

**Chapter 11**

Josiah, the modern-day witch disguised as his ancestor with the same name, entered the upstairs clinic of the peacekeeper and town's unofficial doctor, Nathan Jackson.

Nathan turned as he heard the door open and saw who he thought was a fellow peacekeeper, Josiah Sanchez. "Josiah, wasn't expectin' ta see you 'til later."

"Brother Nathan, I need some herbs for a friend in the next town over who needs some for a new headache cure he's trying to perfect, but I'm not sure if you have any suitable," improvised Josiah, hoping he could fool the healer. Although the vanquishing potion recipe only called for one herb, Josiah thought he might as well get a few extra while he was there.

"Sure, Josiah, I have some that'll be perfect. Wait in here and I'll just get ya some." Nathan went through a door to where he had some fresh herbs growing inside.

Josiah looked around the room, fascinated by the make-shift hospital that didn't have the modern-day gadgets he was used to seeing in hospitals.

Nathan re-entered the room and handed a few sprigs of green leaves to Josiah. "Here you are - just fresh this morning."

Josiah carefully put the herbs in the leather bag he'd borrowed from his ancestor. "Thank you, Brother. I shall see you later." Josiah hoped he was saying things the way his ancestor would, or Nathan could get suspicious.

"I could be a mite late - got a lot to do here first."

Josiah walked to the door and nodded to Nathan before opening it and leaving.

When the witch Josiah got outside, he thought to look cautiously over the balcony first to see if there was anyone nearby in the street below. Josiah didn't want any more distractions while he was on a mission to protect his brothers' futures. He spotted the peacekeeper JD Dunne standing around in the street, and instantly felt suspicious of the young man. He had a strong, but unexplainable, feeling that it was the demon, glamoured into a copy of the youngest peacekeeper.

Then, remembering that Ezra could blink from one place to another, the witch Josiah realized he could blink to somewhere out of the demon's line of vision to get past him undetected. He started focusing on a spot in the street where he wouldn't be spotted by the enemy - hopefully the blinking power would work for Josiah on his first attempt. He was in luck, as he blinked from outside the clinic to his chosen spot in the street below, out of the demon's line of vision. Josiah grinned - Ezra was truly blessed to have such useful powers. The oldest brother was very glad that he was the one to get those powers so he could make good use of them to help bring the two vanished brothers back and protect the ones who hadn't ceased to exist or died yet.

When Josiah and his father had found out Ezra was dead rather than wiped from existence, they hadn't been too surprised that the demon had actually killed the Standish descendant rather than the ancestor. The demon would likely kill any witch he knew was in the Old West, rather than their ancestor. As long as the demon didn't know the witch Josiah was there, Josiah would have the element of surprise if he encountered the Time-changer demon. He'd be able to use his magic against the evil-being and the demon wouldn't be expecting it.

Needing to tell Ezra how grateful he was for the use of his brother's powers, Sanchez looked up at the sky. "Thank you, Brother. I wouldn't be able to do this if it weren't for you loaning your powers to me. The others and I will see you and JD back at home real soon, I promise."

The male witch continued on his way, wondering if his feelings had been right about peacekeeper JD really being the demon in disguise. Was there a power of Ezra's that told him who was really a demon? How was he going to find the REAL peacekeeper JD so he could get the final ingredient for the vanquishing potion?

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Once inside the saloon in Four Corners, the witch Chris was greeted by a pretty Mexican barmaid who asked him if he'd like a drink, obviously deciding that he was old enough to drink alcohol. Using what he'd learned from the history book, Chris decided what kind of drink to order, and once he'd been served he sat down at an empty table.

"Hey, Kid," greeted the peacekeeper, Vin Tanner, as he approached Chris. "I couldn' help noticin' ya look a mite lost. Can I help ya with somethin'?"

Chris was about to answer Vin when the peacekeeper, whom he remembered as the Old West JD Dunne, approached the table and looked at Tanner. "Vin, something weird's going on. There's a guy here who everyone's been mistaking for me. I've been at the Wells' place all morning."

Peacekeeper Vin's mouth fell open, stunned by what he was hearing. He completely believed what JD was telling him - although it sounded far-fetched - as the young man had earlier seemed strange in his opinion. That meant those wanted posters that 'JD' had shown them earlier must be fakes and the ambush could've been to arrest two innocent men.

"That's why I'm here," explained the disguised witch Chris, choosing his words carefully before continuing. "There's a dangerous outlaw on the loose who looks just like you and I'm here to capture him. Don't be fooled by how young I look - this is a disguise so he doesn't recognize me. He already escaped me once in another town."

Both men looked shocked, judging by their open mouths, by Chris's story.

"I need to track him down. Vin...um...Sir, where did you last see him?"

Vin closed his mouth and straightened his clothing, before speaking. "He was here not long b'fore ya entered. We better find Chris an' tell him there's an outlaw about."

The blond modern day witch stood up, preparing to leave the building. He was worried that if he met his ancestor he might seriously harm the time-line. "If you'll excuse me, Sirs. I need to capture him before he causes harm to one of the town's folk." Chris quickly left the saloon before he had to meet his ancestor, the gunslinger Chris Larabee.

"Put your hands up where I can see them," ordered a voice that sounded the same as the Old West JD Dunne's. Chris looked to his left and saw that it was the demon, still disguised as JD, and holding two guns pointed at him.

"I was just coming to look for you, Mr. Demon," said Chris, as he turned and put his hands up, unsure of what else he could do. Chris didn't know if the guns were loaded, so disobeying the demon's orders could get him shot. Hopefully something would happen to stop the demon killing him.

"You weren't my next intended victim, but since I make my own decisions now, I can kill whoever I please." The demon could sense the boy's fear and smiled - he loved feeling the negative emotions that emanated from his victims. As it was a public place, the demon couldn't use fireballs to hurt his victim, as it would have a very bad effect on the timeline, or so he'd been told by the warlocks. So instead, he had to threaten to shoot the witch disguised as a cowboy. The plan was to get the teenager to a more private place and then kill him.

"I wouldn't if I were you," warned a deep male voice from behind the demon. Then the man, who looked like the peacekeeper Josiah Sanchez, without making any contact with the demon, sent him flying into the wall of the nearest building. Josiah made the guns fly to Chris, who grabbed both and held them pointed at the demon. Luckily, there was nobody nearby to witness the magical happenings. "Chris, it's me, your brother, Josiah."

Chris walked to his brother, who looked and sounded like the peacekeeper Josiah, and bear-hugged him briefly, with his borrowed guns still pointed at the demon. "Josiah, I'm so glad to see you, even if you do look and sound different. Did you use a spell to change your appearance?"

'I mustn't reveal anything about the prophecy to him so I should just go along with Chris's assumption why I look this way,' thought Josiah. He answered Chris, "Yes, it worked like a charm, Brother. I found the Time-changer demon vanquishing potion recipe and spell in The Book and already have two ingredients for it, but need to find the real ancestor of JD Dunne to get the last ingredient. You haven't seen him around here someplace have you?" As he spoke, Josiah continued to use his telekinesis to keep the demon away from them.

"He's in the saloon. How are we meant to get his blood?"

"Leave that to me," said the voice of Nathan Jackson, as the man walked out from a nearby back-alley.

"Nathan?" asked Chris, unsure if it was their Nathan or the Old West version.

"Chris, I'm YOUR Nathan - I've come here to help since I feel terrible that I refused to before. I'm sure I coulda stopped Ezra from gettin' killed if I'd been here sooner."

"Nate, we need to get rid of this guy for good. We'll stay out here and watch the demon, while you go inside and get a drop of JD's blood. You can pose as their doctor and make up an excuse for needing some."

"Okay. Then we'll need to mix the ingredients together before we boil them. To do that we'll need a stove, and there's a hotel nearby, so I'm sure we can use theirs. Josiah? Can you keep the demon distracted long enough for us to get this potion ready?"

"Sure, sounds like fun," agreed Sanchez, grinning at the demon as he sent it crashing into the wall again. Luckily, there were no townsfolk nearby to witness the strange happenings.

"This place is too public," stated Chris. "If we don't want to risk exposure, we'd better move the demon to somewhere more private."

"I noticed a livery stable nearby," said Nathan, still keeping up the pretense that this period wasn't where he had been alive. "Chris, you go and persuade anyone inside to leave, then Josiah can go inside with the demon."

The men separated to play their part in Nathan's hastily thought up plan. While Nathan went into the saloon, Chris entered the livery and Josiah stayed outside and out of sight with the demon, which couldn't move while Josiah's telekinesis had a strong hold on him. For a few years, Sanchez had been able to use his telekinesis to keep people and objects still, as if frozen. The only possible explanation was that his power had grown stronger and that one extra use for it was the result.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

After entering the saloon, Nathan approached the table where the peacekeepers Vin and JD were talking. Nathan was dressed just like his living peacekeeper form so he wouldn't attract any unwanted attention.

"Hey, Nate," greeted Vin, unaware that it was the angel of their friend and not the living version. "Ya seen Chris around? We need ta warn him 'bout an outlaw disguised as the kid." The men had been just about to leave the building and find the leader of their group of peacekeepers.

"Hey!" complained JD, annoyed at being called 'the kid' yet again.

"Sorry, JD."

Nathan smiled, happy to be back with his old friends if only for a short while. He got the feeling he might not be able to spend much time with the angel of Vin Tanner back in the present, after Vin AKA Michael had proved he might succeed to reveal the prophecy to the witches prematurely. "I don't know where Chris is right now. Maybe in the jail? I need to ask ya somethin', JD."

"Thanks, Nate," said Vin as he stood up and went to find Chris to warn him about the outlaw.

"Ask away, Nate," said JD, thinking Nathan might ask something related to his forth-coming wedding.

"Could I have a drop or two of yer blood?"

The request startled JD, who wondered why Nathan would suddenly want some of his blood.

"It's for somethin' I read about recently," Nathan quickly improvised. He took an empty glass off the table - that would have to do to transport the blood as he didn't have anything suitable on him.

"Okay, Nate."

Taking one of his throwing knives from where he wore them, Nathan gently pierced the skin on JD's left arm. Then JD held his arm up and let a few drops fall into the glass that Nathan held in place. Nathan had decided not to cut one of JD's fingers because doing that would spoil his aim with a gun until it healed.

"Thanks." Nathan handed JD the clean handkerchief he'd just taken out of a pocket. "Go and wash yer arm thoroughly, then hold this tight around yer arm for a while. I have ta take this back ta the clinic right away."

The youngest peacekeeper gratefully received the handkerchief from Nathan and held it over his pierced skin. He wondered what strange thing one of his friends would ask him to do next.

Nathan left the saloon feeling triumphant - they now had all the ingredients needed to make the vanquishing potion. The Whitelighter was glad that it only needed three ingredients, or they might lose more witches before they could vanquish the Time-changer demon.

As Chris, Josiah and the demon weren't outside, Nathan quickly walked to the livery, hoping they'd all be inside and the demon hadn't hurt anyone.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

When they'd orbed back to the heavens from the Underworld, Michael and Nathan had been met by Orion and Julius, who had been unable to sense how the two were doing on their mission as it was in the Underworld.

Orion stepped closer to them and walked around both the Whitelighters, looking for any signs that they'd been hurt. The Elders were always very concerned for the safety of their Whitelighters when they went on dangerous missions - especially when they didn't go with any witches who could use their powers to help protect them.

"It is good to see that you have both returned to us unharmed," said Orion, relieved that the two had at last returned from their mission.

"Piece o' cake," said Michael with a smile.

Julius looked at Michael suspiciously. "And you made no contact with the Potters' sons?" He didn't trust Michael's answer as he was sure it wasn't that easy to get rid of two highly intelligent warlocks who had most likely predicted the Potter family's every move.

Michael looked guilty. "I had ta summon one of my son's brothers ta stop him walkin' inta an ambush. He helped Nathan vanquish the warlocks while I remained invisible the whole time. Chris didn't even know I was there."

"So that was why Ezra was left on his own shortly before being killed by the demon?" Julius was furious with the Whitelighter for the action that had cost the half-demon witch his life. One of the Senior Whitelighters, who'd welcomed Ezra into the heavens, had reported to the Elder about a premonition he'd received of Ezra being captured and then killed.

Nathan intervened - it wasn't Michael's fault that Ezra was dead, as the Whitelighter had tried to summon both witches to the Underworld. "He tried to summon them both to us, but the incantation only managed to bring Chris to us and we didn't have time to attempt to get Ezra as well."

Orion looked at Julius angrily, and then turned to the Whitelighters. "It doesn't matter. Ezra's glamour and mind-control powers have transferred to Josiah, and Josiah is using them superbly in Four Corners as we speak."

"We know. The demon has a magical camera implant that broadcasts everything he sees and hears back to a screen in the Underworld. We saw that Josiah had turned into the older version of his ancestor with THE scar. We knew it couldn't be the real peacekeeper Josiah, as he wouldn't have that scar yet, so we could tell that someone else from Chris's family had traveled back in time to help vanquish the demon."

There was a well-known story in the heavens about how peacekeeper Josiah had received his very noticeable scar. It had been told by Josiah to his sister, Hannah, in Heaven, and she'd spread the story around until a much exaggerated version finally reached the Elders. They had summoned the ghost of peacekeeper Josiah and found out the true story from him. Now just saying "THE scar," always meant the scar Sanchez had received some years after JD Dunne had married Casey Wells.

"It's as though JD is still around," commented Orion after Nathan had finished talking at high speed.

"Ya think Nate inherited his chatterbox tendencies as well?" asked Michael with a smile.

Julius ignored Michael's question because he was still very upset by the youngest Potter son being erased from existence and didn't want anyone to replace the boy. He didn't want to acknowledge that JD was really gone, although it was hopefully only temporary. "Nathan, I feel they would benefit from having you there to help them. Terri can send you back to the heavens above the town where you lived for most of your life."

Nathan nodded in agreement. "I regretted having to go against Gloria's wishes earlier and would now be glad to join Chris and Josiah in Four Corners. Can Michael come as well? He can turn invisible so no-one sees him."

Orion looked questioningly at Julius.

Julius answered for them both: "It is better if he remains here with us. It is bad enough that the witch Josiah now knows of the prophecy of which he is a part. We don't want to risk more of the sons learning of it before the correct time."

"I'll see ya when ya get back, Nate," said Michael, hopeful that he would still be allowed to see Nathan in the future. He watched as Nathan orbed away to see Terri who was in a different part of the heavens.

Julius approached Michael, who looked at him nervously. "I'm sorry I tried ta tell the witches about the prophecy. From now on I'll keep my distance from 'em at all times."

"You are forbidden to leave the heavens at any time without my permission," said Julius sternly. "We can't risk having you reveal too much to good or evil. I know you have been reading a lot of books in our library ever since you became a ghost and now have a lot of information that mustn't fall into the wrong hands."

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

After finding his witch friends unharmed in the livery and still in control of the demon, Nathan handed the glass containing the youngest peacekeeper's blood to Chris, who stood watching his older brother holding the demon floating above the ground.

"That's all the ingredients now, isn't it?" asked Nathan, being careful to talk like his Whitelighter persona and not his Old West one. If he talked to the witches like the healer, they would notice how similar he was and perhaps realize that he came from the time they were in - just like their ancestors with identical names.

"Yes, thankfully," answered Chris, who was holding the other ingredients that had been in the leather bag that Josiah had been carrying around. "Josiah, can you distract him for a while longer until we can come back with the completed potion?"

"Of course," answered Josiah, still glamoured into his ancestor of the same name.

"I was thinkin' that the best way to get to the hotel's kitchen would be to turn invisible," said Nathan, having already thought up an idea how they could get access to a stove without attracting any attention.

"I can't turn invisible, even if my mom could," said Chris sadly. He liked that for once, he didn't have to do all the planning on their current mission; even though there was a flaw in Nathan's latest plan.

"I can turn you invisible, Chris. Hopefully, the kitchen will be empty so we can use the stove without anyone seeing things moving around. Once we're both invisible, I'll orb us straight into the kitchen to save time."

Once the Whitelighter and blond witch had turned invisible and had gone, Josiah's glamour wore off, and Josiah turned back into his own form.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

About five minutes later, Chris and Nathan, both invisible, orbed into the nearby hotel's kitchen. Luckily, it was deserted, so the two men started to work on the vanquishing potion.

While Nathan mixed the pocket-watch, herbs and blood together, Chris told him about the costume party the Potters had been planning to have back in the present. Then Chris invited Nathan to join them and Nathan said he'd be happy to join in the festive celebrations.

"What will you go as though, Nate?" asked Chris curiously. "I'm sure no one will mind if you use your glamour."

"I was thinkin' I could commemorate how far my family's come since they first came to America, and dress as a plantation slave," answered Nathan, wishing his family could see what he had become. His parents weren't even ghosts anymore because of how long ago they'd died. They were in a special place where no one living or angelic could ever go. Nathan had long ago accepted that he couldn't see them ever again.

"That's a great idea," agreed Chris about Nathan's Halloween costume idea. "I'll be honoring my ancestor here by going as a gunslinger." As the Potters had never had any type of costume party before, they weren't restricting costume ideas to purely seasonal ones.

Chris spotted a large cooking pot hanging from a hook on the wall. While Nathan lit the stove, Chris stood the pot on the large table nearby and poured the mixture into it. Then he tried to lift it, but had to put it back down. "This pot's too heavy to lift now, Nate."

"Don't you wish you had Josiah's telekinesis power now, Chris?" asked Nathan, remembering a few occasions when Chris had mocked his older witch brother's power.

"I doubt he'd even be able to lift it that way."

Nathan walked over to the table and lifted the cooking pot as if it weighed nothing, then grinned at Chris. "You should try helpin' Gloria with the shoppin' more often - that would put some muscles on you." Nathan placed the pot down on the stove, and it began heating amazingly fast. "It's startin' to steam already!"

When the mixture was steaming a lot, Chris helped Nathan lift the heavy pot off the stove. It was now a mixture of molten metal with blood mixed in, and smelt of a cross between burnt metal and herbs. There was only a tiny amount of blood in it, so the smell of that was disguised by the other ingredients.

Chris took out the empty hip flask that had come with his costume, and Nathan poured the potion into it. The blond witch screwed the cap back on, and smiled. "It's almost over, Nate. Soon, everything will be back the way it was before the demon changed the past."

"We better orb back to Josiah - what if the demon managed to overpower him and escape?"

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Josiah was about to fling the demon against a wall of the livery for insulting him too many times, when Nathan and Chris orbed back there.

"Hey Josiah, you've changed back," observed Chris, surprised to see his brother there instead of Josiah's ancestor whom the brother had looked and sounded like. The blond had just gotten used to seeing and hearing the Sanchez ancestor instead of his older adopted witch brother.

"I didn't see any reason to stay in disguise for much longer," explained Josiah, still hiding that Ezra's glamour had changed him into a copy of his ancestor.

"We've finished the potion, Josiah. Have you still got your copy of the vanquishing spell?"

Josiah took a piece of paper out of his pocket and held it up. "Right here." He was very grateful to Ezra for telling their father all the details needed for vanquishing the Time-changer demon - it had saved them some time.

Chris handed the hip flask to Nathan. "You throw this on the demon and then Josiah and I'll say the spell which has to be said afterwards."

**To be continued...**


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Up in the heavens, quite a while after Ezra had sent messages to Terrence using his multi-plane telepathy, the half-demon witch's image began to flicker, causing Katherine to become distressed. "Father!" she shouted to her father, who was now some distance away, talking to a brown robed Elder.

The man orbed from the spot where he stood to beside his daughter, sensing the urgency in her voice. "What's wrong?"

"Look at the boy - he's flickering!"

"Then history is being repaired - he'll soon be returned home." The adult male angel was relieved that everything would soon be back to the way it was before evil had interfered that time. Looking back to where he'd just orbed from, he saw his Elder friend looking over at them with the hood of his brown robes still pulled up over his head. That Elder had been telling Katherine's father that his last premonition had shown Ezra disappearing from the heavens after the demon in the Old West had been vanquished.

Ezra looked sad all of a sudden. "But, I want to stay here with you," he whined, like a small child who'd been told he couldn't have some ice cream.

Katherine looked alarmed. "This place is beginning to affect him - he is already so attached that he doesn't want to leave."

It was annoying how the Whitelighter girl and her father kept talking about Ezra in the third person. "I thought they might permit me to become a Whitelighter, since it seemed hopeless for history to be repaired. With Chris who knows where and me out of the picture, there are no witches in the Old West to repair history."

"See, Father - this is what I said would happen if things were kept from them. They don't realize how important THEY are to the Earth plane and any who come here start desiring to stay where it is so peaceful. He has lost all hope of the remaining witches repairing what was broken." Katherine began to cry softly at Ezra's despair, even though she didn't sense him having it any longer. Having broken her Whitelighter programming a long time ago, Katherine had learned to show negative emotions on the outside like she'd been able to before she'd died.

"Son, you HAVE to go back soon - there are still more innocents to protect and demons to vanquish," explained the male Whitelighter, pulling Katherine to him so he could comfort her while she was upset.

"I'm surprised you even permitted me here - surely you know I'm a half-demon," reminded Ezra, as he looked down at himself, still flickering.

Another male Whitelighter, dressed in long white robes, approached the group after suddenly appearing, to explain something to the temporarily deceased boy. "Yer also a good witch an' a lovin' brother an' son. We ain't gonna throw ya out jus' 'cause ya've got a bit of demon blood in ya." The Whitelighter noticed the hooded Elder in the distance watching him, and wondered if they'd met before somewhere.

"You look identical to one of the gunslingers in that history book," commented Ezra, instantly recognizing the Whitelighter newcomer.

"I come from the Old West, but not from the town in that book. Some men looked awful similar ta each other in those days." The boy was getting a bit too close to the truth, so Michael Tanner decided he'd better leave before he said something he shouldn't. "I hope ya can go back soon - ya don't belong here - not yet anyway." Michael noticed the hooded Elder in the distance nod his head in agreement and wondered if that Elder was part of the Elder team that was responsible for ensuring the safety of the prophesied 'Charmed Seven.'

'Please don't look in my direction,' requested the Elder in a soft and very familiar voice into Michael's head.

Michael looked away quickly, not wanting to get into further trouble with his superiors, even if that one was an old friend.

"When I really die, will I become one of you?" asked Ezra, causing the southern-accented Whitelighter to remember he was still there. The thought of being a Whitelighter after his death sounded good to Ezra. Then he'd be able to orb between places, heal people when they got hurt, and be able to help future good witches.

"Ya think I'm an oracle or somethin'?" snapped Michael, annoyed that the boy thought he was a fountain of knowledge with all the answers. He wished he was a little more respected up in the heavens, where he currently was, and had a more important role than just an assistant to Senior Whitelighters. The reason Michael wasn't so respected there anymore, was that the other Whitelighters and Elders all knew about his attempts as a ghost to reveal the prophecy to the witches - something that the Whitelighters and Elders had been instructed not to do. Disobeying the rules of the Elders was extremely disrespectful and the first sign that a Whitelighter couldn't be trusted to stay on the side of good.

"I'm sorry, Sir. I just wondered - it would be desirable for me to continue to assist others after my death."

"Looks like they fixed things, Good luck fer the future." 'And look out fer my son fer me,' added Michael in his mind, briefly forgetting that Ezra was telepathic. Surprisingly, the hooded Elder, who was still stood in the distance, didn't send an angry response to Michael's accidental silent plea - maybe he felt sorry for Michael being so far away from his son, so would overlook the mistake. Then Michael remembered that the Elder was a father himself and didn't get to see his own children very often as his job kept him away from his family in Heaven for long amounts of time.

Ezra had started flickering faster while he'd been talking to Michael, and after Michael finished talking, Ezra disappeared from the heavens, wondering who the Whitelighter's son back on Earth was. He would try to protect the man's son, as he would with any person who needed protecting - if only Ezra knew who the Whitelighter's offspring was.

"I knew they'd get him back eventually," said the very familiar voice of the Elder who'd been in the distance, from where he now stood beside Michael. When the Elder noticed the sudden movement from his old friend, he realized he had startled the Whitelighter. "Sorry, Vin...Michael, I didn't mean to make you jump." The Elder then took down his hood to reveal that he was the angel of peacekeeper Chris Larabee. He couldn't reveal himself when the half-demon witch was there as Ezra might've noticed then that the Elder looked quite similar to the witch Chris Larabee. That would make the boy very suspicious.

"That's okay, Cowboy. It's great ta see ya again." Michael was glad that Chris had finally revealed himself - the Texan had been longing to talk with his old friend again soon.

Chris smiled. "It's been a long time, hasn't it? I thought I'd never see you again after I heard what happened when you tried to orb to your wife."

Being reminded of past events, Michael suddenly felt sad. "I may've been changed back ta my old self, which I'm grateful fer, but I'll never forgive the Elders fer keepin' me away from my family. I could've protected 'Chelle an' her friends if I'd been there ta help them 'gainst the warlocks."

"I have to go now. I'll see you again soon." Being an Elder, Chris couldn't take sides with his troubled Whitelighter friend against the other Elders - even if THEY were the source of Michael's troubles. He would speak to the other Elders about Michael Tanner though - they had to help the Whitelighter before he got himself into more danger. Elder Chris orbed away, leaving Michael with Katherine and her father, Shaun.

"What did I miss while I was on a dangerous mission in the Underworld?" asked Michael Tanner as he turned to Katherine and her father, Shaun.

Katherine grinned and then answered the resurrected Whitelighter's question. "Not much, just the boy learning to use his multi-plane telepathy."

"Is that a witch or demonic power?"

"His telepathic powers are his witch ones; the mind-control and other powers are all demonic. Welcome home, Michael." Katherine threw her arms around the Texan Whitelighter, pleased to see him back in the heavens.

Michael struggled to get free. "Careful, ya'll squash ma halo." He heard the Elder Chris Larabee, who still stood watching him, laughing loudly at his attempt at humor. The angels didn't really have halos - that was just a myth created by people on earth who didn't know angels really existed.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Meanwhile, in Four Corners, the demon had finally been vanquished.

After opening the hip flask and quickly throwing the potion at the demon, the witches had said the vanquishing spell together to get rid of the evil that had been threatening their very existence. Then the demon had disappeared with a loud bang.

"How do we know our brothers will be restored?" asked Josiah, worried that history was still un-repaired because of their presence there.

"I'm hoping that their Ezra is just hurt, and not dead," said Chris, who'd been wondering the same thing as Josiah. "If he died, we'll have to travel further back and stop him being killed - and my head hurts so much with how confusing it is traveling back and forth in time."

"Maybe, I can do something about that," suggested Nathan as he stepped toward Chris to heal the young man's headache.

"I don't think that will stop me being disorientated by all this time-travel, Nate. Thanks anyway. We should be leaving now."

Before anyone could agree with Chris, two more people were added to their group: the half-demon witch, Ezra, dressed in his own clothes, and their youngest witch brother, JD.

"What the —," began Chris, before avoiding the use of a swearword in front of young ears.

"Wow, where are we?" asked JD in amazement. "How did I get here? What's going on? I was sleeping in my room and now I'm here."

"This location is the town of Four Corners in the Old West, John," explained Ezra, forgetting that his brother preferred being addressed by his initials. Then Ezra carefully thought about what to say next to his baby brother - he didn't want to upset the little boy by telling him about being killed.

Coming to Ezra's rescue, Chris began to tell JD an explanation that wouldn't upset the little boy. "You must've been sent here by the Elders to visit us so we would know we'd woken you up. You were put in a very deep sleep and we had to wake you from here. Ezra was put in one too, but he was here before he fell asleep."

"Like in 'Sleeping Beauty'?" asked JD. "Why did you have to come all the way here to do it? Did a cowboy make me fall asleep so you had to come after him?" Having no knowledge of the history book and Chris's premonitions, JD had no idea what the witches were doing in the cowboy town.

"Yes, that's right, Son," agreed Josiah, liking JD's theory better than what had really happened.

"I wanna go home to our mom and dad and Vin."

Walking over to the boy and lifting him up, Josiah set JD at his hip. "We're going home now, JD."

Blue and white orbs suddenly appeared in front of JD and Josiah. Terri Greer was left standing there as the orbs vanished. "I have been sent here from the Elders of this time to warn you. If you return to your present at the wrong hour, you will meet your past selves and cause terrible damage to your futures."

"That is a very sensible precaution, Miss," said Ezra, realizing that they could've easily gone back home to before when they'd time-traveled instead of after. Then they would have undone the repairs they'd performed on history. "When do you suggest would be the correct time for us to journey to?"

"I will telepathically tell you the correct time, Ezra, and then you will communicate it the same way to each of your brothers here. No evil can learn of that time if it is said that way. Once you have said your time-travel reversal spell, the spell will read your minds and learn where to send you."

"We already got rid of the evil here," reminded Chris, having picked up on evil being mentioned by the Whitelighter, "are you saying there's more evil around?" He was worried because he thought they had secured their futures now that the Time-changer demon was gone.

"Yes, there is still some evil here, but there's a lot less than in your time. It is possible that they might be listening to me to hear where and when the witches from the future will return to, so they can leave a message for future demons to plan an ambush for that precise time. The demons here aren't powerful enough to cause you harm and they can't time-travel, so they are not a threat to you unless they know when and where you are going forward to."

"You mean they've been watching us?"

"Possibly, but it is more likely that they have detected a lot of good magic in this time," explained Terri. "Evil knows that there are very few good witches here, so will most likely have guessed that all the good witches they can sense at present must be from the future."

"We can't go yet - we don't know what's happened to their Ezra," reminded Chris, concerned that the peacekeeper Ezra could be on the brink of death.

"Aren't I living proof that he hasn't gone away?" asked the teenage half-demon witch Ezra, being careful not to say anything that would alarm their witch baby-brother.

"Nate, can you try and quickly find him and check he's gonna be okay? We'll meet you back home."

"Sure, I have my own way to get back," agreed Nathan, not letting on how he'd traveled to the Old West. The Whitelighter had a good idea where the peacekeeper Ezra would be, so he could orb directly there.

"Thanks, Nate. Just be careful you don't inadvertently change something." It would be too easy for Nathan to accidentally cause a change in the past that would affect the time where they were returning to.

"I will - I have powers to help me make sure I don't harm anything," said Nathan enigmatically. Then he orbed away to find the Old West peacekeeper Ezra Standish.

"Ready to go home, boys?" asked Chris, anxious to get home to their waiting parents. He received nods from them all. "We're ready, Terri."

Terri sent the precise time for the witches to return to, to Ezra's mind and then Ezra telepathically told it to his witch brothers. Chris let Ezra into his usually inaccessible mind, but only long enough for the boy to send him the time that Terri had stated.

"I don't suppose any of you can recite the spell from memory to take us home?" asked Ezra, with the words of the spell clear in his mind.

"I'm better at remembering images than spells, Ezra," said Chris, taking out his copy of the spell that had magically transferred from his first disguise to his second.

"My memory isn't always that great," said Josiah as he took out his own copy. "Thanks to a voice from above, I have my own copy." He smiled appreciatively at Ezra, relieved that his brother had been returned to them. "JD, you can read from my copy."

"Yay, I love saying spells!" exclaimed the little boy excitedly.

Then they all recited the spell together; "Carry us now from the Old West, to the date and time of our minds' request, return us home without delay, to our home in our present-day."

Then the brothers were enveloped by strong winds and carried swiftly away from the town. Terri smiled and orbed back up to the Old West heavens.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Nathan orbed directly into his old clinic in the Old West, again invisible so he couldn't be seen.

"Tell me what happened again, Ezra?" asked the Old West form of Nathan, who was standing by the bed that Old West Ezra Standish was lying on.

"A huge naked man with no hair and gray skin knocked me down," explained Ezra.

"Ya banged yer head bad this time, didn' ya?"

Whitelighter Nathan suppressed a chuckle, remembering how often peacekeeper Ezra Standish had ended up in his clinic with some kind of injury - including concussion. In that time, Nathan wouldn't have believed Ezra's account of the creature that had attacked him, and would've put it down to the man suffering from a concussion and having hallucinations as a result.

"But there really was a naked man; I envisioned him with my own eyes, and these eyes never lie, Mr. Jackson."

The Whitelighter walked over to Ezra and put a hand over the man's heart, checking to see if he was in any danger. The angelic form of Nathan sensed that his peacekeeper friend was going to be fine after a day or two of rest in the clinic, so the witch descendant Ezra wouldn't cease to exist like witch JD had.

"That's strange," commented Ezra, startling the Whitelighter when he looked right at him.

Nathan, the Old West healer, was doing some tidying up in the room and didn't look toward his patient upon hearing his comment. "What is, Ezra?"

"I felt an unusual warmth come over me just then."

"I better check yer not gettin' a fever." Old West Nathan turned around, walked over to his friend, and began to examine him.

The Whitelighter was about to orb out of the room, when Ezra spoke again. "I may have found the future Mrs. Standish, Nathan. She's presently staying in town for our friends' wedding."

"What's her name?"

"Jessie Jane Cheshire - she's from a well respected family, and is very hard-working, besides having a caring nature. Her family are distantly related to the Wells family."

The healer grinned. "She sounds jus' perfect for you, Ezra. Yer much better now and as long as ya rest plenty, ya'll be back to yer old self by JD's wedding day."

Then, Nathan the Whitelighter orbed up to the heavens of that time - they had already agreed that they'd send him to his own present once he'd orbed there.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

While Vin slept in his bed at the Potter household, Gloria and Terrence sat on JD's bed, wondering how their sons were doing in the Old West. There was no way for them to tell if anyone else had vanished unless Gloria went around the bedrooms touching things the boys had previously touched. She was scared to do that, fearing that she'd then see more of her sons dying.

"Darling," began Terrence as he held his wife close, "think of how many times the boys have successfully won against evil in the past - they'll win this time as well, I promise."

"If they had succeeded, I'd have my sons back here now, wouldn't I?" replied the man's wife, who'd been hoping her youngest would have appeared back in the room by then. It was the early hours of Thursday morning, and a long time since Chris, Ezra and even Josiah had left to travel back in time.

Terrence didn't have a chance to reply before several voices were heard in the passage outside the room. Both witches rushed out of the bedroom, recognizing their sons' voices.

"That was fun, can we do it again?" asked JD, as he jumped from Josiah's hip to the upstairs passageway's floor.

"I don't think so, JD," answered Josiah in a gentle voice. "Mother and Father won't want us going so far away any time soon."

Vin woke up upon hearing his half-brother's loud voice and then rocketed into the passage. He ran to JD and wrapped his arms tightly around the boy. "Yer back, I missed ya so much."

"I missed you too, Vin," said JD, sounding puzzled, and struggling to get free from his brother's tight grip. "But I was jus' sleeping an' I don't see you when I'm sleeping. I was only away from here for a few minutes after I waked up."

"Ya died, JD," said Vin, saying what none of the other brothers had. "Ya weren't jus' sleepin'."

"No, I didn't die. I only went to sleep, Vin."

Gloria ran to JD and scooped him up into her arms. Then she held him so their faces were close, and planted a gentle kiss on her son's forehead. "Welcome home, Dear."

"I missed you, Mama," slipped out of the boy's mouth before JD could stop it.

"I missed you too, Son," returned Gloria, almost in tears at the boy calling her what he'd called his real mom - she knew that JD really meant it.

"We can have our party now everyone's back," shouted Vin joyfully. "Ya did kill the demon, didn' ya?"

"Yes, we got him," answered Nathan, who'd just orbed onto the stairs from the present-day heavens. "The warlocks who gave him orders have gone as well. What's more, Chris has talked me into dressin' up for your party." The Whitelighter grinned, waiting for cheers from the two youngest sons.

"Yay!" cheered Vin and JD as one, glad that the friendly family Whitelighter would join in the costume party.

"Any chance we can have dinner now, Mom?" asked Chris, after his stomach had complained about not being fed for hours or maybe even centuries.

"I'll get some TV dinners out of the freezer and put them in for everyone," answered Gloria, glad to be useful - she hadn't been able to help while her sons had been away. "There'll be just enough time for you to tell us what happened in the Old West." None of the family members left behind had felt hungry, so the previous evening's dinner had been wasted.

'Omitting certain unpleasant details though,' said Ezra telepathically to Terrence.

'Of course, Son. I'm so glad to have you all back,' sent back Terrence.

"You two!" said Gloria sternly, intuitively knowing that they were talking inside their heads. "You know I hate it when you talk that way."

"Ezra was just telling me something, Dear," said Terrence meekly.

"Guys, I have to see the Elders now - I'll see you later," said Nathan, before orbing away.

Gloria started walking along the passage to the stairs.

"Let me help you get dinner ready," said Terrence helpfully, before following his wife downstairs to the kitchen, leaving the five witch brothers together.

Vin ran to Chris and hugged his leg. "Hey Chris," he greeted, glad to see his favorite brother again.

"Hey Vin. You okay?" Chris knew that Vin must've been worried about his brothers while they were away - especially JD, who he'd been close to for all his younger brother's life.

Vin nodded with a smile. "The cartoons weren't much fun without JD; but I knew ya'd all be back soon. I felt a bit tired waitin', so I had a nap. I knew ya'd wake me up when ya got here."

"I wish I always had your confidence." Chris knew that Vin had been more worried than he would let on - it was always his way because of him being a half-Whitelighter and not being very good at expressing negative emotions on the outside.

"Did ya see my fore-dad?"

"I think you mean forefather, Master Tanner," replied Ezra. "I personally didn't get the opportunity to see anyone as I was put into a deep sleep not long after my arrival there with Chris." Suddenly, Ezra had the idea that Vin was the son of the southern-accented Whitelighter that he'd met in the heavens, although they all thought that particular Tanner parent had disappeared forever after being killed by a Darklighter. Ezra decided not to tell Vin that he might have met his real father while he'd been dead - it would open a can of worms that maybe wasn't meant to be opened. Maybe the Whitelighter would come and visit Vin some time.

Vin looked alarmed. "Ya mean ya got killed in the Old West, Ez?"

'Please, Vin, don't say such things around your younger brother,' sent Ezra to Vin's mind.

"Sorry, ya did only get put inta a deep sleep." Vin didn't understand why he suddenly felt the urge to pretend that Ezra hadn't been killed.

Ezra looked puzzled - he'd only meant to telepathically ask Vin to watch what he said to their youngest brother, JD.

Josiah smiled, knowing that Ezra had his mind-control power back and had used it on Vin to stop him telling JD the alarming truth and upsetting the little boy.

"I saw your forefather, Vin - he seemed like a good man," said Chris. Then he walked towards the stairs, feeling the need to sit down comfortably downstairs. "Let's tell our parents about our adventures downstairs, shall we?"

Everyone agreed and followed their brother downstairs, where they sat and talked with their parents while their late dinner, or perhaps early breakfast, was cooking.

**To be continued...**


	14. Chapter 13

**Extra disclaimer: The hero mentioned in this chapter is an actual comic-book character and wasn't created and isn't owned by me.**

**Warning: Minor swearword used in this chapter.**

**Chapter 13**

On Thursday morning, Orion and Julius met again in the summerhouse in the heavens about two hours after the witch brothers had arrived at their Earth home safely. The little building was Orion's own building that he'd created with his magic for small gatherings, so no one else used it without his permission.

After Julius arrived, Orion stood facing his friend in the center of the structure. "Now that the immediate danger has been averted, we can relax once again."

"Yeah, they got the kids back in one piece," agreed Julius, now much happier. "I wonder if they're going to invite any ghosts to their party as is the Halloween tradition for witches."

"It would be fitting for them to summon Brianna and thank her for helping them - although she wasn't with them when she did help."

"I was thinking they'd rather summon one of the peacekeepers."

Orion looked at Julius with a stunned expression. "I assume you mean one of the peacekeepers who IS actually a ghost and not an Elder or Whitelighter."

"I could use my glamour power so I look like a ghost, couldn't I?" Like demons and some warlocks, Whitelighters had a glamour power they could use to take on a different appearance.

"It doesn't work for personal purposes," said Orion sternly.

"I've had it with this damn disguise!" shouted the other Elder, before orbs appeared around him and he changed back to his true appearance with brown hair.

"Words like that aren't appropriate for Elders," complained Orion calmly.

"I'm sorry. But I really can't stand that long hair - it keeps getting in my eyes. Why did I ever agree to stay in that ridiculous disguise?"

The Elder Chris Larabee walked into the summerhouse. "You promised me you'd behave yourself. You know they'll separate us even more if you don't."

Julius, now with short dark-brown hair and a mustache, walked to the newcomer and enveloped him in a bear hug. "Hey, you ol' war dog, how you been?"

"Busy," answered the blond Elder. "There are a lot of plans being made in the Underworld since their discovery of the prophecy, and we have to make sure that no evil stops it being fulfilled."

"And you're going to order Whitelighters to make their charges fight those evils, right?"

"I wish - but since no witches are allowed to know of the prophecy, we don't have a good enough reason why they should fight evil that isn't immediately threatening the safety of any innocents."

Julius put a supportive arm around his friend's shoulders. "Chris, ol' buddy, you just need to use that wise ol' head of yours and think of some good enough reasons."

After Chris Larabee had died, the blond peacekeeper had been given the chance by the Elders to continue helping good people, and had accepted the immediate appointment of Elder.

Buck Wilmington, not wanting to be separated from his old friend, had asked if he could be an Elder as well, and the Elder committee had agreed, although reluctantly. The Elders didn't approve of Buck's former lifestyle where he'd dated a lot of different women before finally settling down to raise a family. Even after Buck was married, he'd still flirted with women quite a lot. On becoming an Elder, the Elders had insisted that Buck change his appearance and name, thus severing his former identity.

Unfortunately, Elder Chris had been given a lot of work to do since he'd been appointed to the team responsible for ensuring the future safety of the prophesied "Charmed Seven." Chris didn't often get to see his friend Buck anymore as the brunet worked elsewhere. They were both pretty certain that the Elders had arranged it like that to keep them apart. The Elders were fonder of Chris than they were of Buck, believing that Buck had less good in him than Chris.

"Wouldn't you jus' love to visit our prophesied descendants at their Halloween party, Chris?"

"We can't do that, Buck."

Buck smiled at Chris, his expression showing he had a plan so that he could visit the Potters for Halloween. He would love to meet the descendants of his old friends. "Those boys are gonna forget about meeting us in the Old West, although slowly, and before they can start to wonder if there's some special reason for their group echoing ours, they'll have forgotten everything they learned from that book and their time-traveling."

"They aren't that forgetful, Buck," said Chris, rubbing his forehead as though he felt a headache coming on.

"When they're asleep, perhaps the memory-dust fairy will visit them - with the slow acting type of memory dust."

Larabee sighed - it seemed like Buck had an answer for everything. Now how would he wriggle out of visiting a group of witches who were the peacekeepers' descendants on Halloween and having to recount his experiences to them? Chris knew that Buck would tell a few embarrassing stories about him.

"They could learn a lot from us - it will help them protect innocents better," explained Buck persuasively, sitting down sideways inside the summerhouse and resting his legs on the bench.

"Okay, but we'll have to ask our superiors if we can go to the party first."

"They'll let us go, I'm sure they will." Wilmington grinned from ear to ear - it would be so good to be on the Earth plane for a party. He would've liked to have seen his witch descendant, but knew that he was forbidden to get close to the witch while his powers were bound and he was being kept in the dark about real magic.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

On Friday, Gloria spent the whole morning finishing the Halloween costumes for Chris, Vin and JD. Josiah had that day off from his detective job, and he arrived at the house about mid-morning with his completed costume that resembled a Native American chief. Now everyone had their costumes for the party except Ezra and Nathan, who were both using magic to create theirs, providing there weren't any new powers that came with their outfits. Gloria didn't want them having to face the consequences of using magic for personal gain.

"Mother, may I see your costume?" asked Josiah as he sat in a lounge-chair, drinking coffee. Having no idea of what costumes his parents had hired for the party, he was anxious to find out what characters they would be dressed as.

"You'll have to wait and see tonight, Dear," answered Gloria as she finished using the sewing machine on JD's special cowboy trousers. From the start, she'd wanted everything to look authentic, so had gotten some ideas from some old westerns that were among Terrence's video collection. She'd noticed that some of the boxes had someone else's name on them, as though Terrence had borrowed them, and then kept the tapes for his own collection. Gloria intended to ask him sometime if he'd borrowed them or just bought them off someone who'd already written their name onto the boxes.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Meanwhile, up in the heavens, Buck had asked a more senior Elder if he and Chris could be the Halloween guests at the Potters' party. This had caused a short discussion between that Elder and a few others who had just orbed in after being telepathically summoned by him.

Buck stood waiting in the distance, unable to hear what the Elders were saying because they were magically blocking their words from him. "Come on," he muttered impatiently.

Orion and an unusually short Whitelighter orbed over, as if they'd heard Buck's words. The Whitelighter had the hood of their white robes up so the angel couldn't be identified.

"You cannot go to the Potter house since you are the ancestor of the witch they haven't been united with yet, and Chris is too busy to attend," informed Orion. "We have chosen someone more relevant to go instead." Orion looked at the figure beside him to indicate that was to be the party guest.

"Aren't you a little short for a Whitelighter?" Buck asked the figure stood beside Orion, trying to put down the person who got to go to the party instead of him. Wilmington wondered if his behavior in front of Orion earlier that day had affected the Elders' decision to stop him going to the Potter family's party.

"He is only a temporary Whitelighter so that he can attend the party tonight," answered Orion, preventing the figure from having to speak. "After your friend's misuse of his ghostly abilities, we decided not to send the party guest in his usual form."

"Talking of Michael AKA Vin Senior, where is he now?"

"He is working in the heavens library where he cannot cause any further harm to the prophecy."

Shaking his head in disgust, Buck refrained from shouting angrily at the Elder. "Michael has seen the error of his ways though - he won't make any further attempts to reveal the prophecy to our descendants."

The short robed Whitelighter whispered something to Orion and Orion whispered back. Then he turned to Buck. "If he had kept his promise to us that he would stay away from his wife, he wouldn't have been killed by that Darklighter. He has to face the consequences for his actions or he will just continue down the path of self-destruction that he has already been rescued from once. We are only trying to help him."

"Junior won't like having his movements so restricted," warned Buck, trying to figure out if he knew the short guy in the white robes.

After reading Buck's mind, the short temporary Whitelighter backed away from the Elder, not wanting Wilmington to discover his identity yet.

"You will resume your identity as Julius straight away," ordered Orion sternly. "The peacekeeper Buck Wilmington no longer exists."

Buck nodded with reluctance, not wanting to end up doing menial work like Tanner, or giving the Elders a reason to mistrust him as much as his friend. 'Buck Wilmington will ALWAYS exist, ' he thought to himself.

A low chuckle came from the short Whitelighter, before he orbed away to prepare some stories to tell at the party.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

The evening of the party soon arrived, and the boys were busy in their rooms getting ready for the party.

Chris was the first son to finish getting ready, and waited in the lounge downstairs for his girlfriend, Sarah, to arrive.

After ten minutes of waiting, the doorbell rang, and Chris sprang up from the sofa to answer it. Standing on the doorstep was Sarah, dressed as a fairy, complete with two pink transparent wings stuck to the dress's back. Chris lent in and gave her a brief kiss before leading her into the house.

"I'm glad you could come tonight," said Chris as he led his girlfriend into the house.

"Me too," said Sarah, happy to be able to spend some more time with Chris.

The couple walked into the lounge and sat together on the Potters' luxuriously soft sofa.

"You look amazing," complimented Chris, his voice soft as he was overcome with emotion at how lovely Sarah looked.

"Thanks, you look very handsome yourself as a cowboy," said Sarah with a smile. The glitter she'd sprinkled in her hair shimmered as it was hit by the light.

"I prefer 'Gunslinger' - this character didn't work with cattle."

"Don't be getting too comfortable you two, I need some help setting up refreshments," said Gloria as she walked into the room in her costume. She was dressed as Queen Victoria, the longest reigning ruler in English history.

Chris and Sarah stood up after studying Gloria's costume for a brief moment.

"You look amazing, Mrs. Potter," said Sarah, awestruck by how good Gloria looked in the hired costume.

"Thank you, Sarah. You look lovely as a fairy."

"Chris told me not to come as anything evil - I think it's a good idea to dress as good characters since we fight evil all the time. You wouldn't believe how many evil things I had to help my parents vanquish this week!"

Giving Sarah a look of understanding, Gloria responded to the girl's comment. "You need a rest then, Dear. You two stay here and the younger boys can help me instead." The woman then left the room to call the other boys to help her.

Just after Gloria left the lounge, JD and Vin ran downstairs and into the room. "Sarah! Sarah! Look at our cool costumes!" shouted Vin, as he approached his brother's girlfriend.

"Wow, you both look like proper cowboys," complimented the girl appreciatively, sure that the younger boys wouldn't mind being called cowboys.

"You look like a real fairy," said JD while he climbed onto the sofa to look at Sarah's wings attached to her back. "Can you fly?"

Sarah giggled. "No, Sweetie; they're not real."

"You shoulda got ones that can make you fly."

"I'm quite happy with my feet firmly on the ground." Sarah wasn't fond of heights, so had been very careful to get wings that wouldn't make her fly.

Vin gently took Sarah's hand in his. "Ya gotta come an' see my Lego building, Sarah." Before the events of Wednesday, Vin had been making a big tower with his Lego bricks. While dressing for the party, he'd also been finishing the building so it would be ready to show Sarah.

"Okay, then." Standing up, Sarah flashed Chris an apologetic smile and then went out of the room with Vin.

JD sat on the sofa next to Chris. "Can we go trick-or-treating?"

"Sorry, Kid," answered Chris. "It's too dangerous while there's so much real evil outside."

"Okay," said JD reluctantly. "Are we gonna play games at the party?"

Chris nodded and then stood up. "Come on, let's go and see what everyone's doing."

"Games like apple-bobbing and..."

Chris cut JD off before he started listing every game he could think of. "We'll play plenty of games after the special Halloween meal, but not too many or we won't have time for a special Halloween visitor."

JD looked up at his older brother. "Who Nathan? He's just our Whitelighter."

"No, silly - he's a party-guest anyway. Nathan's bringing someone, but he said it's a surprise."

"A ghost? They're scary." JD looked round the hallway nervously, scared that the ghost would appear at any minute.

"I'm not sure, but I know it will be someone good and they won't hurt anyone else good. How come you're scared of ghosts, but not demons?" It would never cease to amaze Chris how children's minds worked - it was a total mystery to him why his brother was more scared of things that didn't look as scary as demons.

"I dunno. Maybe 'cause I don't see as many ghosts as demons."

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Upstairs, Ezra had said his transformation spell and now looked like the red costumed Daredevil from his comics. He studied himself in the mirror hanging on his bedroom wall. "Perfect," he said, glad that he had worded the spell carefully enough so he didn't get any Daredevil powers, or lose his sight like Daredevil had. Daredevil's other senses had been heightened when he lost his sight because he'd come into contact with some radioactive waste.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

Soon, everyone sat down to their special Halloween meal in the kitchen. Gloria and Josiah had made all the food for the meal that included, among other things, various cakes cut into appropriate shapes such as skulls and witches on broomsticks. The party guests had Halloween punch the color of blood, which JD and Vin thought was cool, although a lot of it ended up on them when they tried to pretend it was real blood. Thankfully, the punch was only similar to blood in color, so no one was fooled. Gloria had allowed there to be evil looking cakes and drink to make the party seem a little like a Halloween one.

When they were offered pumpkin pie, JD and Vin both looked warily at it, unsure of whether they'd like it or not.

"Just try a little, boys," encouraged Terrence, eager to get the boys liking more types of food. Too often, they looked at vegetables or fruit but didn't risk tasting them for fear they'd taste horrible.

Vin decided to be brave, and dug his spoon into the pie. He bought it up to his mouth and licked a little off the spoon. Liking it, Vin tried a little more and then licked the spoon clean. "I like it."

Following his brother's example, JD tried some of the pie, and also liking the taste of it, was soon eating more.

Gloria was impressed - she'd felt certain that the children wouldn't like pumpkin pie. "I'm glad you two like that, you can have some more if you've got room."

Both boys eagerly nodded and were soon tucking into second helpings of their mom's delicious pie.

**CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P - CH7P**

After dinner, the family played apple-bobbing using a very large bowl, which Gloria had bought especially for the party. JD and Vin proved to be very good at the game. After the game, Nathan suggested he call their special guest, and Gloria and Terrence agreed.

After Nathan had telepathically summoned the guest, a mass of white orbs appeared and then vanished to reveal a Whitelighter dressed in long white hooded robes that were what Whitelighters often wore for meetings in the heavens. The hood was up, hiding the angel's face.

"I'm sure y'all thought I'd bring a ghost, but this visitor's particularly appropriate after what happened on Wednesday," announced Nathan with a large grin.

The figure pulled his hood down to reveal he was a male angel, receiving gasps of astonishment from Josiah and Chris, who instantly recognized him. Then the visitor stepped closer to the dark-haired little boy, who was staring at him, and bent down to be level with the child. "I see you have the Dunne family trait of being small for your age."

"I ain't that small, Sir," answered little JD politely.

"No, of course not. You're as tall as you feel on the inside." The Whitelighter put his hand over his heart to show what he meant.

Little JD looked at the man's raised-heel shoes poking out from his robes. "You've got tall shoes," he commented. "So you're way shorter really!"

"Yeah, I am," answered the angel, embarrassed by the boy's observation.

"Don't you feel tall 'nuff on the inside?"

"He didn't come here to talk about height, Kid," said Nathan, knowing the conversation between the shorter-than-average Whitelighter and the child could go on forever.

"Sorry," apologized the angel and boy at the same time.

Nathan looked exasperated. "Only little JD's the kid around here."

"Course, Nate," said the Whitelighter, JD Dunne. He was very honored that the Elders had chosen him to visit his two descendants and their adopted family. As Whitelighter JD's descendant Michelle Dunne was the mother of both Vin and JD, it meant that the Dunne ancestor was related to both of the young prophesied witches.

"Please call me Nathan." Still not wanting the men to know that he was the Nathan from the Old West, Jackson wanted to try and pretend he wasn't too friendly with the angel of his former peacekeeper friend.

"Sorry, Nathan." Temporary Whitelighter JD walked toward his other young descendant, Vin Tanner, amazed at how fate had bought together his peacekeeper friend, Vin (AKA Michael) Tanner, and his Dunne witch descendant, Michelle. "Hi, Vin. Did you know you have your father's eyes and your mother's nose?"

Vin giggled shyly. "Did you know my mom and dad, Sir?" The little boy had no idea of the Whitelighter's identity, but realized he must know what his parents looked like to make the comment he had.

The Whitelighter JD didn't answer, knowing he had to be careful what he revealed to the children - he wouldn't make the same mistake as Michael and lose the Elders' respect and trust.

"You got hair the same color as mine," commented little JD, having no idea that the Whitelighter was his ancestor, who was usually a ghost but was temporarily a Whitelighter while he was visiting the Potters.

"So we do," answered angel JD. "I came here to tell you some Old West style Halloween stories. Please sit in a circle around me and I'll begin."

The family sat on the carpet around angel JD, looking forward to hearing some scary stories. Nathan remained standing next to the Potters' visitor, there to make sure that the former peacekeeper didn't let anything slip that he shouldn't.

JD, the temporary Whitelighter, began to tell them a story about strange noises heard one night in Four Corners and how all the horses in the livery stable suddenly vanished into thin air. Everyone waited to hear more, as JD paused for effect.

When the angel didn't continue, young Vin got impatient. "What happened? Did they come back?"

"They were missing for four whole weeks before they returned but..."

"But what?"

"Ummm, I can't remember - it was so long ago," lied JD. The story was actually one that Buck had made up and told him, but he hadn't really been listening near the end of it.

Everyone groaned - they'd been waiting for the end of the story.

"JD - that wasn't funny," scolded Nathan. "You have to tell them complete stories."

"Okay," said JD, and began to recount one of his real scary adventures to the group.

While the family listened, all was quiet in the house except for the sound of their visitor's voice. No evil creatures attacked and the Potter family's first ever Halloween party was a complete success. Terrence, who was dressed as Henry the Eighth, the English king who'd had six wives, decided they'd have more parties in the future providing they always went so well.

Gloria was also thinking that they should have more Halloween parties because of how well the current one was working out. She just hoped that next time Terrence wouldn't dress as a man who'd had so many wives, especially since two of those had been beheaded!

While no one was watching, the history book, that Gloria had been magically forced to take from the library, vanished. All memories of their Old West ancestors and their ancestors' friends would be forgotten by the family because of the Elder who visited everyone while they slept that night. He sprinkled memory dust on each witch and then said an incantation to make sure only certain things were forgotten. It wouldn't do any good if the witch family forgot important things like how to protect innocents and vanquish evil.

Back in the heavens, Michael Tanner was changed back into a ghost after he'd been a Whitelighter for twenty-four hours. At the request of the Elders, he watched his son growing up from a distance, but didn't try to make contact with Vin or his family. The Whitelighter knew that one day he would meet his son as an adult and then perhaps they could spend some time together.

It wouldn't be too long before another evil plot was hatched to threaten the prophecy of "The Charmed Seven," but the Potters' sons had shown that they were more than capable of foiling any attempts that the other side made to ruin the adopted brothers' destiny.

**The End.**

**There will be more stories in The Charmed Seven Past AU - this is only the second of many (most of which haven't even been written yet!)**


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